Academic Opportunity with Safeguards for Integrity

Jake New writes about maverick educator Herbert Richardson, who during his long life developed an academic publishing house and, for a time, provided an opportunity for earning doctorial degrees based on dissertation. New writes about the short-lived program for obtaining a degree without coursework:

His [Richardson's] travels also involved a new educational venture: Edwin Mellen University.

The new institution was, in many ways, an extension of the press. Like the press, it eschewed the traditional model and drew a fair share of criticism for it. While some scholars described the university as a not-so-cleverly disguised diploma mill, Mr. Richardson calls it valid and altruistic.

One inspiration for the institution was a dissertation his press received from a young man whose epilepsy had prevented him from completing his Ph.D. Yet Mr. Richardson felt the student deserved a doctorate. Couldn't there be a way for people like this author to earn a degree despite his circumstances?

"There's something unfair about this university system, if a person in Europe can get a degree for a dissertation only, but someone in the States has to do coursework," says Mr. Richardson.

For less than $1,000, Mellen University offered M. Phil's and Ph.D.'s based on dissertations and "life experience." In 1993, just eight months after its creation and accreditation through the Turks and Caicos Islands—to take advantage of looser regulations—the university granted its first degrees.

According to the article, Dr. Richardson is a talented scholar and entrepreneur. The criticism Dr. Richardson received seems to stem from the provision of academic credentials and services without strong institutional safeguards of extensive peer review, outside committee evaluation and other credentialing meetings.

My take on this article is to agree that the traditional academic process bogs down academic innovation and is responsible for a substantial portion of the cost of higher education. However, the process in large part defines what people expect of a degree holder, so until expectations change, innovations to streamline edeucation shall be subject to criticism.

-DD