University of Phoenix Doctoral Alumni: Changing the World through Quality Research
Consultant John Bryan had no idea that a favor to a friend could change the course of his life.
When a friend who worked with political asylees asked Bryan, a former CEO, CFO, and COO, for help in planning a clinic that would serve San Diego’s refugee population, Bryan was happy to step in. Through his friend’s organization, Bryan learned that leaders in Uganda were unclear on how to govern in the wake of conflict. As part of his dissertation for the University of Phoenix’s School of Advanced Studies, Bryan offered to create a leadership framework for them.
Bryan’s framework, based on a study of leaders from the Acholi ethnic group, was read by leaders in the Ugandan parliament, who asked him to extend his data collection to the rest of the country. Other groups have approached Bryan about similar research in such countries as Burundi, Rwanda, Malawi, Ethiopia, the Democratic Republic of Congo, and the Sudan. He has also presented his findings at international conferences on leadership and reconciliation.
“My research has turned my career upside-down,” Bryan says. “It’s given me purpose and focus. I’m a lot clearer about the potential contributions I can make, not just in a business context but in a geopolitical context as well. It’s very humbling.”
Doctoral Students are High-Level Professionals in Search of Meaning
Many of the students who pursue doctoral studies at University of Phoenix do so because, like Bryan, they want to make a difference. Typically older students who are already considered leaders in their fields, doctoral students at the School of Advanced Studies desire to perform sophisticated research that can benefit their companies, organizations, or communities.
“Our students are at a stage in their lives where they’re looking for meaningfulness,” says Dr. Hank Radda, Senior Vice President at the School of Advanced Studies. “Most have already been successful in their careers, and now they want to follow their passion and improve the place where they work or the world around them.”
“The degree is not just a piece of paper to them,” he adds. “You don’t persevere through four or five years of study unless it has relevance and meaning for you. There’s just no way to complete that work without a connection to something deeper.”
And University of Phoenix doctoral alumni have indeed parlayed their skills and passion into research that benefits society. They’ve founded companies and nonprofit organizations; served as CEOs, COOs, presidents, directors, deans, and high-ranking military officers; taught at colleges and universities; published books and articles in scholarly journals; and presented at conferences. Alumni have used their doctoral research to turn underperforming schools around, design and implement water reclamation systems for underprivileged countries, create virtual tutoring programs, start new academic departments, and manage the operating budget of an entire division of the U.S. military. Their dissertation topics range from angel investing groups to the ramifications of the No Child Left Behind Act, from ecosystem management to the experiences of deaf women in academe, from the impact of literacy labs on underprivileged schoolchildren to encouraging collaboration between the information technology and business sides of a corporation.
Online Program Allows Hardworking People to Earn a Doctorate
Even more impressive is that, in most cases, University of Phoenix doctoral candidates have accomplished their goals while working full-time and raising families. Alumni have worked on their dissertations while deployed to Afghanistan and Iraq, while doing fieldwork in Africa, and while in the hospital preparing to give birth to their children.
“It takes a high-capacity person who seeks intellectual rigor and has the propensity for engaging in challenging activities that require much hard work to earn a doctorate from the School of Advanced Studies,” says Dr. Tracey Wilen-Daugenti, Vice President of University Strategic Relations. “Our students have such complex lives that they have to be very focused to be able to complete the grueling course of study that getting a doctorate entails. I find that our program helps self-identify that kind of person, and that’s one reason our graduates are so successful.”
The advent of the Internet has made it possible for people who otherwise could not have earned a doctorate to achieve one. University of Phoenix students take doctoral classes and work with their mentors and dissertation committees almost entirely online. Through technology, the School of Advanced Studies is able to realize University of Phoenix founder John Sperling’s vision of a more democratic system of higher education. “Sperling saw that doctoral education in the U.S. was an elite endeavor, and he wanted to make it more accessible,” says President Bill Pepicello. “So when we started the School of Advanced Studies, we put together a program that would allow more people to earn degrees but still had all the hallmarks of a quality doctoral program.”
Rigorous Doctoral Process Results in Sophisticated Research
Quality and accessibility are hardly contradictory terms, Radda says. “Some students think the program’s going to be easy because it’s online,” Radda says. “They confuse convenience with lack of rigor. But within their first class they see how challenging it is. I’ve had students tell me they learned more during the first three weeks of their first class than they did during a whole semester at another school. They realize that it’s a demanding program that will require much mental energy and discipline.”
“Our doctoral process is highly rigorous, and, in most respects, not that different from a conventional program,” says Dr. Jeremy Moreland, Dean of the School of Advanced Studies. “The coursework students engage in challenges them to reach higher levels of expertise, master scholarly writing, and refine their critical thinking skills. In the dissertation stage, they constantly revise their work for appropriateness and relevance. Their work is reviewed by their mentor and committee members, a human subjects review board (where appropriate), and finally by the dean’s office.”
Real-World Experience Results in a Highly Relevant Degree
One of the hallmarks of the School of Advanced Studies is its adoption of the scholar-practitioner model used in all University of Phoenix degree programs. Both faculty and students work, usually full-time, in the same fields they teach or study, enabling them to marry theory with handson application. Faculty also all possess doctorates.
“Our faculty live in multiple worlds—the world of research, scholarship, and of practical outcomes,” says Radda, “and so they’re able to help students see that connections. Making connections drives much of what our faculty try to do with every doctoral student. Our doctoral community connects us not only to one another but to the world beyond our classrooms where our students work and live.”
“Students come to us with years, often decades, of experience from day one,” Moreland says. “They know what the cutting-edge issues and problems are within their field, and they’re anxious to investigate those issues in a scholarly fashion. What we aim to do is provide students with the tools they need to move to a doctoral level of inquiry, to train them in rigorous research methods that they can use instead of mere anecdote while investigating a question. When students graduate we hope we’ve armed them with the ability to think critically and systematically evaluate those questions they continue to ask.”
Doctoral students’ accomplishments give testament to the success of the scholar-practitioner model. One student pursuing a doctorate in health management, for example, planned a department of an HMO as a class project—and later went on to implement that plan in the HMO he worked for. Another student who worked for an energy company helped his firm address a real-world problem: When energy costs rose he, as part of a class assignment, created a PR strategy to explain the situation to customers. His company’s PR firm then adopted that same strategy. And one alumnus, who worked for a high-tech firm, noticed that he and his coworkers were less happy on the job when they had to perform certain kinds of tasks but more satisfied when they were performing others. He decided to formally research this observation for his doctoral thesis. The student developed his own instrument for determining a person’s optimal mixture of task types, and he and a fellow alumnus own a company that sells the assessment tools they developed through their doctoral research.
Residencies Help Students Hone Their Critical Thinking and Collaboration Skills
Students and faculty in the School of Advanced Studies do have the opportunity to meet face-to-face during residencies: intense, multi-day periods of work and study that take place in different locations around the country. During residencies, students develop their critical thinking and leadership skills, refine their prospectuses, and work with faculty on the final chapters of their dissertations.
Dr. Jack Crews, Associate Dean of the School of Advanced Studies, believes the residencies are vital to the success of the doctoral program. “Doctoral learning is not intended to be a lonely activity,” he says. “Students need to learn how to dialogue and engaged in collaborative authorship and peer review. We also have a rich, diverse community of scholars in our program—diverse in terms of geography, profession, field of study, and research interests—and it’s imperative that we capitalize upon that diversity.”
Interdisciplinarity Leads to a Fruitful Exchange of Ideas
Another striking feature of the School of Advanced Studies is its commitment to interdisciplinarity. In their third residency, for example, doctoral candidates meet and work with students from outside their discipline, and thereby learn to present their research in such a way that those from other fields can understand it. This practice can make for a fruitful cross-fertilization of ideas, Moreland says. “It also increases the potential impact of their research,” he adds, “and teaches them to be careful in how they’re using terms and delivering information.”
Students are also encouraged, where appropriate, to include a faculty member from outside their discipline on their dissertation committee. “It’s exciting to be part of an interdisciplinary committee,” Crews says. “You see where models and methodology share characteristics that cross disciplines. It helps us, as faculty, to expand our understanding and question our assumptions as well.”
The Doctorate is Just the Beginning for University of Phoenix Alumni
Most School of Advanced Studies alumni find that the journey doesn’t end when they receive their diplomas; many, in fact, have become committed researchers who have continued to publish, present on, and investigate the questions that intrigue them long after graduation.
“If you’re just going through the program to get the degree, then you might be missing out on some of the potential impact of the doctoral process,” says Bryan, who is now studying leadership theory as it applies to U.S. businesses during the recession. “It’s not just about that piece of paper that says you have a doctorate—it can be life-changing.”
