University of Phoenix online

[paulh]

[QUOTE=levi]M

1) What are some of the advantages of doing the TUJ MSEd TESOL degree versus a similiar one (e.g. the Columbia MA TESOL)? What exactly is the difference between an MA and MSEd in TESOL? Research-based vs. more practical courses?
[My objective being to obtain the degree in order to find a university teaching job in Japan.

Columbia is only in Tokyo. TUJ is in Tokyo Osaka and Fukuoka.

Columbia you need to be teaching as a you have a practicum. TUJ you dont need to be teaching but need to be able to afford the fees. Columbia you do over 3 summers but TUJ you can take up to 5 years to complete your degree. Pay As You Go.


TUJ is an Education degree (M.Ed) while Columbia is an Arts degree. No real difference in content and both are acceptable for getting jobs here. A bit of rivlary between people who do Ed degrees and those who do Arts degrees e.g. that a D.Ed is not a real PhD etc. Educational snobbery.

2) I believe the cheapest TUJ tuition (at the Fukuoka campus) is around 204000yen for the entire program. Back in the US, (I think) that amounts to getting a Masters at a pretty good university (not to say Temple U. isn't).

I am a graduate of Temple in Japan. a 3 credit course is 200,000 yen. You need 30 credits to graduate with an MEd or about 2 million yen in total over 3 years. You can do the degree by completing each 3 credit course course as you can afford it. It took me 3 years to complete my degree but i have known people to do it in 2. Temple lets you do 3 courses or 9 credits before admitting you into the MeD program.

Would I be better off to just go back to the US, get a MA or MS TESOL from a university there, and then try to find a job back in Japan? I suppose I'd save quite a bit of money, although I lose out on the experience of being in Japan WHILE I'm in school.

I have a friend who has quit his job in japan to get hin MA in the US but that means he is earning no money while he does his degree. Do the TUJ you can work at the same time, do courses in the evenings. Its HARD, but doable. I did it for 3 years. If you are single you can do it. If you have a gfamily moving back to the US and having no income is logistically tricky and expensive as wife still has to eat.

Not only that back in the US you are out of the loop for jobs. Contacts are important here for finding jobs.

3) That said, for people like me interested in working in Japan and interested in pursuing a graduate degree in TESOL and are not tied to having to go to a Japan campus, is it safe to assume the smartest (economically speaking, at least) move would be to either return home to do the degree or do a distance learning one and THEN return to Japan?

I know one guy in Shikoku married with two kids who CANT go to Temple but is doing a degree with University of Southern Queensland in Australia. If you cant go to temple or Columbia. Distance or going home for a year are your best alternatives. You may want to go to a school that is not necessarily distance. Not that distance degrees are bad but some prefer the chalk and talk and interaction with professors and other students. If youc an study by yourself, have access to a library and resources and internet, distance is OK too.

Edit: I found this to be quite informative:
http://www.teachinginjapan.com/continuinged.html

I wrote that piece and if you have any further questions you can mail me.

[levi]

paulh,

Thanks for all the good info. Nice article, by the way.

Oops, I meant to say 204,000 yen per course, not for the program. I just checked the tuition at each campus, and they've gone up bit since you were there. Fukuoka is 204000, Osaka 213000, and Tokyo 222000 yen, respectively. Thanks for the correction.

"You can do the degree by completing each 3 credit course course as you can afford it. It took me 3 years to complete my degree but i have known people to do it in 2. Temple lets you do 3 courses or 9 credits before admitting you into the MeD program."

"TUJ you can take up to 5 years to complete your degree. Pay As You Go."


Not to sound redundant (because it seems you clearly said it) but TUJ IS pay as you go? More specifically, is that for the entire period of my studies, or just for the first 9 credit hours that I can take before applying to the program to become a matriculating student? In other words, after I do the 9 hours as a non-matriculating student, then apply into the program, do I then need to pay up front for the remaining 27 credit hours?

Sorry if this seems like a really stupid question. Here in HK, I have to pay a lump-sum amount for each semester, regardless of how many classes I take. At least this is how it works for the program I'm in. Doesn't quite make sense to me, but... I'm not running the show.

As I keep thinking about it, I find the only advantage to going back to the US is cheaper tuition, and savings in terms of lower cost of living. What might offset that is the fact that I may not find a job that pays as much as being an ALT AND affords me the time to take evening classes.

The huge disadvantage being, of course, that I want to be back in Japan ASAP and would have to settle for returning home for a couple years first, and as you said, I lose touch with potential contacts, job opportunities, the community, etc, etc.

Of course, as I mentioned to resce, if I were to opt for Japan and TUJ, I need to actually get HIRED to be an ALT first, and then worry about TUJ after that.

In terms of distance learning, I think my personality and learning style is more suited to the lecture environment.

Thanks again. It's obvious I need to sit down and really think this over and just make a decision. If I have any more questions, I'll be sure to let you know.

Cheers,
L

[Nick Halliday]

1. Distance learning (often over the web now) vs. taught courses you attend.

2. Highly structured (e.g., modular distance learning) vs. research-based.

3. Cost (TUJ sounds way too expensive for what they provide)

4. Speciality (many go for MA TESOLs, but master's in education, such as educational technology are possible).

5. Even if distance learning, do they require you to attend sessions at the home institution.

6. Quality and background of teachers and advisers. Imagine ending up with someone like paulh as your adviser! Most will be based in an anglophone country and won't be familiar at all with your teaching situations and educational environment in Japan. No, spending a summer in Kyoto chasing tail (because people like Paulh paid all that money to TUJ) doesn't qualify them as knowing much of anything about Japan.

7. What do they require of you to finish the program? Ask to see theses their successful students have produced.

8. Accreditation. For example, TUJ has never bothered to register properly with the Ministry of Education (MEXT), citing freedom over curriculum. It also asserts that its US accreditations apply to its campuses in Japan. The future, however, might be true international accreditations and accreditations that focus on types of programs (why have people who know nothing about any aspect of TEFL accredit a program?). BTW, recently, MEXT did give a special dispensation to TUJ that more or less means it's accredited for the purposes of Japan.

[paulh]

16. Quality and background of teachers and advisers. Imagine ending up with someone like paulh as your adviser! Most will be based in an anglophone country and won't be familiar at all with your teaching situations and educational environment in Japan. No, spending a summer in Kyoto chasing tail (because people like Paulh paid all that money to TUJ) doesn't qualify them as knowing much of anything about Japan. .

People like Paulh will already have their PhDs or doctorates, some are great, some are not so great. I got taught by Rod Ellis who is like God in ESL and I was rather disappointed with his lectures.

Paid all that money to TUJ got my degree and got some pretty good jobs out of it without leaving Japan.


Not only that Birmingham recognised and accepted my TUJ degree as being acceptable for acceptance to their university.

[paulh]

17. What do they require of you to finish the program? Ask to see theses their successful students have produced.
.

Temple University you can take 3 courses or 9 credits before you are admitted to the degree.

Bound copies of University theses are usually in the library or made available.

[paulh]

18. Accreditation. For example, TUJ has never bothered to register properly with the Ministry of Education (MEXT), citing freedom over curriculum. It also asserts that its US accreditations apply to its campuses in Japan. The future, however, might be true international accreditations and accreditations that focus on types of programs (why have people who know nothing about any aspect of TEFL accredit a program?). BTW, recently, MEXT did give a special dispensation to TUJ that more or less means it's accredited for the purposes of Japan.

Total Bull manure

TUJ has now been recognised by MOE as a foreign university branch campus and not a 'special school'. I believe students can get sponsorship of their student visas from Temple and credits are fully transferable.

Its not a dispensation. they are recognised as a university after 24 years in Japan.

[paulh]

Temple University is a large, well-known, highly respected state-related university located in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Founded in 1884, the university is today the 28th largest university in the United States and the largest provider of professional education (law, dentistry, medicine, pharmacy, and podiatric medicine) in the country. Temple University is accredited by the Middle States Association of Colleges and Schools, which accredits colleges and universities in the eastern part of the United States. This accreditation includes Temple’s campus in Japan and assures that the university maintains high-quality academic programs internationally.

At Temple’s campuses in Philadelphia, undergraduate students can choose their majors from more than 120 areas, all of which can be either started or completed by students at the Japan campus. With this many majors, Temple offers an academic program that will meet almost every educational goal.

Temple University has a strong and enduring commitment to international education. This is illustrated by the university’s permanent campuses in Japan and Italy; by its number of student exchange and study programs abroad; and by its number of international students, who are attracted by the university’s high-quality programs, thereby producing one of the most ethnically diverse student bodies of any American university.

[Nick Halliday]

Temple University is accredited by the Middle States Association of Colleges and Schools, which accredits colleges and universities in the eastern part of the United States. This accreditation includes Temple’s campus in Japan and assures that the university maintains high-quality academic programs internationally.

Wow, I never knew it, but apparently Japan is a 'Middle State' of the US.

They might assert it, but just because they assert it, it doesn't mean it's true. Japan doesn't recognize that accreditation, and for good reason--a lack of reciprocity. This may or may not get worked out at the WTO to the liking of the American masters of the universe (and university).

Hey, I hear they teach some really great phonology and phonetics courses, Paul. But apparently what's good in the Middle States doesn't apply to most human languages.

[Nick Halliday]

Total Bull manure

TUJ has now been recognised by MOE as a foreign university branch campus and not a 'special school'. I believe students can get sponsorship of their student visas from Temple and credits are fully transferable.

Its not a dispensation. they are recognised as a university after 24 years in Japan.

Where did I say special school? Do they have a remedial reading programme there, too? They are recognized, according to your text, as a branch of a university, not a university. Now I think it would undercut their statement on accreditation if they claimed more than branch campus status, but on the other hand, I have heard some TUJers say they were their own university.

I said it was a special dispensation granted to quiet the crybabies at the US Dept. of State and the trade reps. See my piece at you know where if you need some informed background.

Definition of total bull manure: paul on phonetics, paul on how many foreign students there are in Japan, paul on just about anything.

[Nick Halliday]

Temple University you can take 3 courses or 9 credits before you are admitted to the degree.

Bound copies of University theses are usually in the library or made available.

Your first three must have been phonetics or education in Japan.

SO I should search under the author name 'Paul Hockspittle' right?

[Nick Halliday]

People like Paulh will already have their PhDs or doctorates, some are great, some are not so great. I got taught by Rod Ellis who is like God in ESL and I was rather disappointed with his lectures.

Paid all that money to TUJ got my degree and got some pretty good jobs out of it without leaving Japan.


Not only that Birmingham recognised and accepted my TUJ degree as being acceptable for acceptance to their university.

Rod Ellis is like a god in SLA research, he is little read in ESL except for those forced to read him at programmes like the above.

[Nick Halliday]

i would have to say university of phoenix is a complete waste of time.

might as well go to thailand and buy a fake diploma.


but that is just my opinion.

They are accredited, so don't confuse them with the diploma mills -- or even otherwise legitimate places that simply don't or can't get accreditation (they still make you do work and write a thesis or dissertation).