Not a fake degree but...

It was reported that Deputy House Speaker Wan Junaidi Tuanku Jaafar came out to vehemently deny that his Doctorate in Business Administration (DBA) was from a certain American Northeastate University, supposedly a fake degree mill. Instead, he told Malaysiakini that his DBA was obtained from the Southern California University for Professional Studies in 2005. While this school is not a fake degree mill, it's not exactly a stellar academic institution either.

The Southern California University for Professional Studies (not exactly a name which inspires confidence, is it?) is now called the California Southern University. It also happens to be an online university which offers doctorate programs in business, psychology, criminal justice, and law.

Now, I've never been a big fan of online universities when it comes to doctorate programs. Frankly, I don't see how someone who is working part time can find the time to read up on the relevant literature in a specific field and then gather the necessary data and information and research to write one's thesis. Most of my colleagues take about 2.5 years to finish their coursework and another 3.5 years to write up their thesis. I'm hoping to finish in 5 years total. I don't really see how one can come up with a PhD thesis that's worth the paper its written on by doing a part time online degree.

Furthermore, how many regular hours of supervision can one get from an online doctorate program? How many credible and recognized academic advisers would be advising PhD programs for an online university?

According to a wikipedia entry, Cal Southern is an unaccredited university which means that any degree from Cal Southern is probably not recognized by other private universities in the US. Which means that if one got a DBA from this university, one couldn't even apply for a teaching position in any major US university.

In other words, I suspect that the Deputy Speaker probably found an easy way to obtain a DBA from this particular dodgy online university.

What really amazed me and my wife was the fact that he could so confidently and proudly clarify that he got his DBA from a university called the Southern California University for Professional Studies. Frankly, I would be ashamed to say that I got a doctorate from a university with a name like this and one which is unaccredited at that. Unless he really doesn't know that the online outfit from which he obtained his DBA from is actually a dodgy outfit.

Wonder what his thesis was about?

P.S. Don't confuse Cal Southern with the University of Southern California (USC) which is a legit research university with a great football team!