Online Ph D Program

Is an Online Ph D Program just as good as a traditional Ph D Program?

There’s an ongoing debate about distance education.  Is getting your degree online just as ‘respectable’ as getting one through a traditional program? Whether you’re thinking about getting a bachelor’s online or thinking about an online Ph D program , you’ve probably heard opinions from both sides of the issue.

The arguments against online degrees usually stem from one of two main issues–neither of which are necessarily applicable to the degree you’re interested in.

The first, which you hopefully know well enough to avoid, is the diploma mill/unaccredited (or accredited by institutions which themselves are not qualified) degree.  Clearly these degrees aren’t comparable to earning an accredited Ph D–whether through an online Ph D program or a traditional Ph D program. But why does the existence of such scams have to cast an unfavorable light on all online programs?

It shouldn’t.  But unfortunately, because many of these scams are perpetrated using the Internet as a key tool, some people have formed a set of assumptions–effectively, prejudices–regarding online study.

The second factor is the fact that traditional academia holds the online method, in general, in a certain amount of suspicion.  Part of this may be simple prejudice–why should they believe, they ask, that an online Ph D program is good enough, when they themselves earned their doctorates differently?  And part of it more specifically targets the reduced or eliminated residency requirements of online doctoral programs.  Residency, to these traditional academics, is such an integral part of the Ph D experience that they can’t imagine that any Ph D program without a rigorous residency requirement could possibly pose its candidates the same challenges and rewards.

The Basic Facts

Most of the naysayers who discount online programs or say an online Ph D program is no good are exercising either ignorance, prejudice, or both.