> On Mon, 29 Dec 2003 23:56:08 +0000 (UTC), Constance Vigilant wrote:
> [SNIP]
> > That was sweet of you Tom, but I know that my IQ is below average. I've
> > measured it and I am somewhere in the low nineties.
>
> If it were your writing would not be as good as it is.
>
> > I also try to keep clear of the paper, since my handwriting stinks.
>
> Mine too.
>
> >
> >>
> >> I agree on the honorary doctorate.
> >>
> >> From his description of the course on Christian philosophy he's
> >> currently taking toward his earned doctorate, I have doubts about
> >> the value of *that* qualification, if/when it is awarded. That
> >> may be an unusually simple course, and the rest may be up to
> >> normal academic standards. Perhaps Jason could discuss this.
> >>
> >> Tom McDonald
> >>
> >
> > I feel sure that if you see the syllabus, and look at the required
reading,
> > you will see that the hours of study are the same as with any other
doctor's
> > qualification.
>
> I don't think that the hours are important, it is how they are spent that
> counts.
>
> > Just because it is a theology degree taken in a context of a school that
> > agrees with him and not disagrees, doesn't stop it being a degree, and
in
> > the olden days the early thology doctorates handed out by Cambridge,
Oxford,
> > St Andrews, Durham and places like that where given by Anglicans to
> > Anglicans and they all agreed. We don't dismiss those doctorates.
>
> No, but we don't say that they are the equivalent of a doctorate from
those
> universities today. Just as Bachelor's degrees from those universities in
> the 19th century were often worthless as measures of academic study, and
> Master's degrees from Cambridge and Oxford still are when awarded
> automatically without any work being done for them.
>
> Will his thesis be scrutinised by people with real PhDs or by people with
> PhDs from non-accredited universities?
>
> Doug
>
The Masters degree is given for graduates of Oxbridge to reflect the
superiority of the study for a normal BA at Oxbridge over the BA at any
other University. In comparison with the language work done in the Cambridge
Modern and Medieval language tripos, which involved unique research every
week and tough discussion in tutorials with your tutor and your partner,
what I saw being done by friends of mine at other universities was like
Sixth Form college.
I went to a Russian class while visiting a friend at the University of East
Anglia. While we were wresting with the issue of gnosticism in Bulgakov's
'Master and Margarita', they were drilling them to pronounce 'o' as 'a' in
an unstressed syllable.
I had bad dreams about it afterwards, I felt so sorry for the guy.
I have a Cambridge M.A., I also studied 5 years for it as I read the
literature all through my gap year and had a year out in Russia, and can
stand up to any linguistics or literature MA bearer from any European
university. I was taught how to learn for myself, and how to make learning a
life-long passion. I was not subjected in Cambridge to the cramming to the
short-term memory which is done on the average BA course, especially the
'continual assessment' ones, at any time. I was able to peruse in a
measured pace all the medieval Germanic and Slavonic literatures. Till today
I could post up an accurate reading from Wulfila's Gothic texts, or any
portion of Beowulf, and spot translate Icelandic sagas with little reliance
on the dictionary.
I was offered the chance to do a doctorate on Turkic loanwords in Russian,
and the idea of spending three years doing that wasn't as tempting as
obtaining a Chartered Accountant's qualification and finally making money,
and achieving financial independence, so I did the latter instead. I know
how hard I studied for the ACA qualification, and quite frankly I wouldn't
swap it for a doctorate and an MBA combined.
I know for a fact I've studied more, and am obliged to keep studying with
what is called Continual Professional Education, than I would have studied
in obtaining those other two qualifications.
That's why I have in my time employed, trained, promoted and also sacked
dozens of people with doctorates.
This may not appeal to the minds of some of you people, who seem obsessed
with PhDs, real or imagined, but I'm afraid it's the reality. I've had PhD
people that actually showed themselves within the first month to be
virtually unemployable.
Best,
Uncle Davey
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