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[king_ghidorah]

There is a trend at my little teaching uni for non-teaching, low-level, previously non-tenured administrative staff to pursue online PhDs from places like U of Phoenix, Capella, Walden, etc.  We've got several listing these degrees on their staff profiles already and several more actively pursuing them.  These are mostly staff who sometimes work with students while running the various offices on campus (which contribute to administrative bloat) and very occasionally teach a first-year experience type class.

I don't think these degrees do anyone any good in this context (none of us are getting raises any time soon and the plumb jobs almost always go to someone coming in from the outside), so I think these degrees have a lot more to do with a sense of prestige and a sense of belonging to the academic community than anything else.  Already "PhD" and "ABD" are showing up in people's email signatures, several staff have casually let it slip that they are "also pursuing their doctorates" during random conversations, and those that are done tend to have "Dr." added in front of their names on their desk plates, name tags, and outside their office doors. 

As a favor, I helped a staff member edit hu's "PhD" "dissertation," and while it is always dangerous to make generalized statements, the work was far below what would be acceptable (in all the key criteria) for any program I am aware of.  Perhaps this case was an exception...

I was just wondering if other posters are seeing a similar trend at their academies.

[samspade]

The Executive VP where I teach has only a MA and announced publicly he was going to pursue a PhD from U. of Phoenix. The very loud laughter at the next faculty meeting directed at him convinced him otherwise.

[jerseyjay]

I have had two experiences of this.

One, several years ago, I was an adjunct at a school, and the administrator was pursuing his doctorate from Capella. The subject was generally related to his position. I don't know if it affected his pay; his position was already secure. (Then, to top it off, he "published" it with one of the fancy presses with a German name we all love so well.) That said, he was a good administrator.

The second was when I was applying for a job teaching full-time at a for-profit school, the head of the humanities department had a PhD from Capella in humanities. (The Dean of Students actually had a history doctorate from a R-1 and had published extensively earlier in his career.) I didn't get the job.

[madhatter]

I have had two experiences of this.

One, several years ago, I was an adjunct at a school, and the administrator was pursuing his doctorate from Capella. The subject was generally related to his position. I don't know if it affected his pay; his position was already secure. (Then, to top it off, he "published" it with one of the fancy presses with a German name we all love so well.) That said, he was a good administrator.

The second was when I was applying for a job teaching full-time at a for-profit school, the head of the humanities department had a PhD from Capella in humanities. (The Dean of Students actually had a history doctorate from a R-1 and had published extensively earlier in his career.) I didn't get the job.

Far be it from me to defend Capella, but they don't offer any doctoral programs in humanities disciplines, let alone a "PhD in humanities."

[totoro]

Far be it from me to defend Capella, but they don't offer any doctoral programs in humanities disciplines, let alone a "PhD in humanities."

Do we have someone falsely claiming a PhD from Capella?!

I don't think these degrees do anyone any good in this context (none of us are getting raises any time soon and the plumb jobs almost always go to someone coming in from the outside), so I think these degrees have a lot more to do with a sense of prestige and a sense of belonging to the academic community than anything else.  Already "PhD" and "ABD" are showing up in people's email signatures, several staff have casually let it slip that they are "also pursuing their doctorates" during random conversations, and those that are done tend to have "Dr." added in front of their names on their desk plates, name tags, and outside their office doors. 

This is so like "nouveau riche" behavior...

[lyndonparker]

I think it's rather sad. But I can't imagine why these folks are pursuing PhDs in the first place.

[kaysixteen]

In many cases, for automatic promotions and/or pay increases. 

In some (many?) cases, for the 'right' to call themselves 'doctor' and appear the equal of the school's professoriate...

other reasons?

[seniorscholar]

There is a trend at my little teaching uni for non-teaching, low-level, previously non-tenured administrative staff to pursue online PhDs from places like U of Phoenix, Capella, Walden, etc. 

This is not a new trend at all. Just about forever -- to my knowledge at least from the 1960s, when colleges were expanding fast and PhDs were less common than they are now -- many faculty with master's degrees (and not just administrators) picked up doctorates from unknown correspondence programs for exactly the same reasons, and in some places they got promotions and raises -- though not  often in schools where there were enough real PhD's in departments and in administration to recognize the lack of value in the "degrees" on offer. I'm willing to bet that a lot of the same "universities" are still in business, on the net, even under the same name and with the same classy embossed seal on their stationery/website.

[zz8435]

There's been a proliferation recently, online and in real life, of part-time PhDs in "Higher Education Administration", and at many universities essentially all administrative staff other than janitors and food-service workers are encouraged to get one, often with automatic pay increases upon completion. I haven't looked into these programs myself, and while I doubt they bear any resemblance to traditional PhDs, I can imagine they might be helpful for things like student services, hr, marketing, accreditation and regulatory issues, budgeting, etc.

[ega110]

I am intrigued by the prospect of earning one of these Ph.Ds myself. My only question is if having one would help me teach as an adjunct. I have been told that there are places in the middle states where you can adjunct without a Ph.D. I imagine that while these degrees are not as powerful as traditional doctoral degrees, they might be enough to give me the needed edge over a competitor who only has a master's.

P.s. I am talking about classes like freshman comp.

The best part is that you could pro ably earn one while adjuncting. When you have one you can probably pull in more classes.

[systeme_d_]

No, Ega110, an online PhD will knock you completely out of the running for an adjunct position in respectable colleges in the midwest.  Look at this thread title:  Administrative Staff and Online PhDs.  Low-level non-teaching admins can sometimes get away with these degrees -- if they're already employed.

In other words, read the OP and subsequent comments.  None of them would lead anyone to believe that an online degree would be appropriate for someone who aspires to teach.

[zharkov]

Ditto to the above consensus about the lack of value for online PhDs from for profit schools.

Let me just add that there are a good number of doctoral programs -- PhD, EdD, DA, and DBA come to mind -- offered by public and non-profit schools, and geared to mid-career students that one can take on a part time basis.  These sort of programs often schedule classes on weekends, evenings, during the summer, and sometimes online.  (Not online programs, but sometimes with a mix of regular face to face and online courses.)   To be clear, such programs won't teach you gene splicing or get you a job at an R1, but -- in my experience -- are often OK for people looking for a career boost in admin jobs at middle ranked schools, maybe teaching at similar places, typically in professional programs.  In any case, there is no reason to consider an online doctorate from a for profit school, since there are usually alternatives one can pursue that have a good deal more credibility.

[voxprincipalis]

I imagine that while these degrees are not as powerful as traditional doctoral degrees, they might be enough to give me the needed edge over a competitor who only has a master's.

I have bolded the key word in your post. This "advantage" only exists in your imagination. Rather the opposite exists in the rest of the academic world.

If you are not in a doctoral program, working as a professor, doing a postdoc, or otherwise employed in academia, you are probably not in a position to make conjectures about how academic hiring processes work.

VP

[polly_mer]

I imagine that while these degrees are not as powerful as traditional doctoral degrees, they might be enough to give me the needed edge over a competitor who only has a master's.

I have bolded the key word in your post. This "advantage" only exists in your imagination. Rather the opposite exists in the rest of the academic world.

If you are not in a doctoral program, working as a professor, doing a postdoc, or otherwise employed in academia, you are probably not in a position to make conjectures about how academic hiring processes work.

Vox is right on this. 

Are you going to hire someone who boasts about being top student at Job Bob's Emporium of Learnin' 'n' Stuff or someone who was a solid student at University of Wisconsin-Platteville?  That's the same kind of comparison: doctorate from an online diploma mill (i.e., not an academic credential) or master's degree from a solid program.

[ega110]

Sorry if it seemed I was talking outside of my experience. As someone who is not involved with university hiring processes I can only operate on what would make sense to me as a layman.

I have always looked at credentials from the perspective that the more you have the better. It didn't occur to me that an added credential could actually count as a negative. I would have guessed that all credentials are positive only some more so than others.

What I don't understand is how these programs stay open if people do not respect the degrees. I always see commercials for the university of phoenix while watching msnbc. One of them focuses on a woman who got a Ph.D from the university of phoenix and ended up as head of a highly respected nurses program. It was pretty inspirational. I know advertisements lie, but these were claimed to be real life testimonials.