Thursday, October 20, 2005

Online Degrees More Acceptable in the Workplace

Interesting article on BusinessWire, regarding Vault.com's Online Degree Surveys, with 107 employers responding:

Online Degrees More Acceptable in the Workplace

Basically, one of their quotes touches on what I see to be the biggest strength of an online degree:
One such respondent stated, "It takes a lot of discipline to complete an online degree."
In my experience thus far, I absolutely concur with that statement - it takes considerable discipline to sit down and hit the books when nobody's really making you. They go on to give some statistics gathered from the survey, summarized below:
  • 34% have ever encountered a job applicant with an online degree
  • 20% have hired applicants with online degrees
  • 54% still favor job applicants with traditional degrees over those with online degrees
  • 45% said they would give job candidates with both types of degrees equal consideration
  • 86% would be willing to accept a job applicant with an online degree, while
  • 14% said that both online bachelor's degrees and graduate degrees are not acceptable
  • 91% would hire a candidate who had everything they were looking for, but only possessed a degree from an online university
Yes, for the next few years, online degree holders will potentially be subject to a bit more scrutiny than a brick-and-mortar degree holder. However, I think that will continue to become less and less of a factor, and if you are a truly qualified candidate for the job, the degree will be seen as complimentary, and not a detraction from your credentials.

If nothing else - Just wait until I go and take over the world. THAT will give online degrees some credibility. ;-) To be perfectly serious, though - as more and more people take online courses, it would stand to reason that we will have more and more people who "make it big" that went online. As that happens, the perceived credibility of qualified online programs will increase dramatically.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

It is true that online degrees are becoming more acceptable and the list of schools offering MBA degrees online continues to grow every year. All of the school don't exactly meet your specific criteria for consideration, but many are AACSB accredited; such as the University of Mississippi, University of Nebraska-Lincoln, Syracuse University, Oklahoma Stae University, and the list goes on. While many of these schools are not ranked in the top 50 they are never the less well known schools with their own alumni networks. Other non traditional programs such as part-time or executive programs are also gaining in respect and this is just a reflection on the diversity of the work force today as it is understood that not everyone is willing or able to drop everything and over $100,000 to attend a full time MBA program and many times the online or part-time programs show much more work ethic and initiative on the part of the student. Thanks again for the info and forum for discussion and best of luck in your continued studies.

Steffan von Hoffman