Whether you're an administrator who wants to move up, or just a prospective administrator, you may have questions about graduate degrees -- questions like, do you need one to advance, where should you go to get it, and what difference will it make in your career path. Every person and situation is somewhat different, and probably everyone you ask will have different advice. With that disclaimer, here are a few observations:
Degrees do matter. Leaders in higher education normally should have the credentials that higher education provides and that people in higher education believe in. The course work, reading, and research involved in graduate study can enhance your understanding, your skills, and your readiness for leadership, and, in some cases, the process may cause you to reconsider your career plans. The network that you build as a graduate student can provide colleagues, support, and friendship for a lifetime. But in this column I will take a more pragmatic approach. There are doors that will be closed to you if you are lacking some degrees, and doors that will open more widely if you have certain degrees from certain institutions.
The doctorate is the biggest question mark. Faculty members need this degree and most have it. So if you are moving up from a faculty position to an administrative job, the chances are that you have already obtained this credential.
But what if you became an administrator without ever following the faculty path? Will your chances for advancement be improved by having a doctorate? As a general rule, I'll say yes. Even outside of academic affairs, in areas like student affairs, finance, and fund raising, having a doctorate sends the message that you share the values of the faculty and have made the same personal commitment to learning as professors. And certainly, presidents and would-be presidents have run into political trouble for not having a doctorate at institutions in Illinois, West Virginia, and elsewhere.
Getting the degree can be only the beginning. In some institutions, advancement will also require having had experience as a full-time faculty member, with part-time teaching seen as only minimally adequate. So if you are still in your 20's or 30's and want to make a major investment of time, energy, and money in your professional preparation, you should give serious thought to doctoral study and perhaps a faculty career path as a start. If you are in your 40's or older, getting a doctorate may be viewed by a search committee as an afterthought and may not lead to the kind of legitimacy that you were hoping for; be aware of this limitation and seek the advice of others who know you and your situation before you plunge ahead -- especially if you don't really love the idea of going back to school for its own sake.
If you want to move into higher education from the outside world, would it help to get an advanced degree? If you're in this situation, first evaluate what you bring to the job market now, and what kinds of jobs you're hoping to get. If you are in a specialized area that has an analog in higher education (e.g., business, law, the foreign service), there are institutions that will value the education and experience that you already have, so more may not be needed. If you have been a lawyer, for example, you could be a good candidate for administrative roles in a law school or at an institution that has a law school. But you'd be less likely to be a strong candidate at an institution without a law school, like a small liberal-arts college. So if you want to move into higher education from another sector, and your background doesn't provide you with a special hook, you will probably get a boost from earning a doctorate.
If you decide to get an advanced degree, what kind should it be? I'll comment on four types: the Ph.D., the Ed.D., the J.D., and the distance-learning doctoral degree.
In terms of improving your chances for advancement as an administrator, the Ph.D. is the preferred degree, and often a degree in a discipline (e.g., English or biology) is preferable to one in a professional area (e.g., higher education or curriculum). If you have a choice between a Ph.D. and an Ed.D., you should be aware that some people look down on Ed.D.'s. In my view, this is a strange commentary on how we in higher education view our own area of activity, but it is a view prevalent in many institutions -- some of them institutions that offer these professional degrees themselves. The prominence of the institution that grants the degree can sometimes balance out the limitations associated with the degree itself, so you should consider both of these factors as well as your own personal situation and interests.
The J.D. degree is sometimes viewed by administrative search committees as a doctorate and is therefore an acceptable alternative to the Ph.D. or Ed.D.; this appraisal varies across institutions and isn't something you should count on.
Doctoral degrees earned through distance learning are still not, in my experience, welcomed by search committees -- even at institutions that offer a considerable amount of distance learning themselves.
Some people begin doctoral study with the best intention of finishing. But the road can be long and taxing, and the costs high in time, money, and energy. Some people make it to the dissertation stage and get stuck, leaving them as A.B.D. -- all but dissertation. This is not a good conclusion. If you go into a doctoral program, you should commit to finishing; getting only partway there can look worse on your résumé than not starting at all.
Before leaving the question of doctoral degrees, I want to touch on whether you have to have a doctorate in order to be a college or university president. Presidents without doctorates probably have something else very special to offer. I would suspect that some come from outside higher education, presumably bringing some other "equivalent" experience that is seen as sound preparation for the presidency (e.g., they have been president of a company). Or, presidents without doctorates who are from within higher education probably bring to the job extraordinary skills in highly valued areas within the institution. For example, an institution that sees fund raising as its highest priority may select a president with fund-raising expertise but without a doctorate, or an institution that needs sophisticated management or "out of the box" thinking may select a president from the corporate world with a great track record as a manager.
But the fact remains that most search committees establish selection criteria that include a doctorate, preventing candidates without doctorates from getting much attention. As a search consultant I normally advise against this limitation in the selection criteria so that especially talented candidates who bring all the qualifications except the degree can still be given consideration.
What about master's degrees? These degrees vary tremendously, so it's hard to generalize. However, the observation that leaders should have the degrees that their institutions offer and believe in is even more true at this level. It's difficult to have legitimacy and credibility as a leader if you have no degree higher than the basic degree the institution offers. If your career is in a two-year institution, a bachelor's degree may be enough for some administrative positions, but in an institution that offers the bachelor's degree, the administrators who hold significant leadership roles are normally expected to have earned something more.
Does it matter which institution you attend for graduate work? Yes, it does. If you want to work at a certain kind of institution, you should seek a degree from an institution that is at least equally high in the pecking order. Especially with elite institutions, both public and private, the "pedigree" that you bring -- i.e., the institutions that granted your degrees -- is a critical element in evaluating candidates.
However you do it, graduate study is a major personal and financial investment, and you should consider carefully whether it's really right for you.
