Is UNISA internationally recognised all over the world?

Hi Everyone

Well, is it? If you want to leave SA and look for a job overseas, will they recognise your UNISA degree?

Thanks

I think so and should hope so

They will come from afar and bathe your feet in palm oil. They will cool your brow with waving palm fronds. This will happen after you complete your Unisa degree.

but only if your name is Rick

I've heard from quite a few people that the Science Faculty degrees are very commendable.

In my opinion the stardards are not high enough. There should be more compulsary assignments (maybe 8-10 per module). They should be more involved and the answers should NOT be easily extracted from the textbooks (such as multiple choice - INF in particular).

It disturbs me when people base the low assignment work load on the fact that studying part time while working can be too excessive. If you can't handle the load, take less modules! I'm getting the feeling that UNISA is taking on a more capitalistic approach... :/

In my opinion, UNISA's degrees are fair - not exceptional, nor a waste of time. It takes a lot of balls to complete a degree from home without the pressure of lecturers, tests, fellow students, etc. If you really want to impress, try aiming for a degree with distinction!

YES

UNISA is one of the few (if not the best) credible correspondence universities in the world. Please correct me here, but in 2003(?) UNISA was the ONLY NON USA correspondence University Degree acknowledged in the USA.

This was thanks to some hot shot that did his Pyscho Masters thru UNISA.

(Under correction) UNISA is the worlds largest correspondence(long distance learning) University in the World. So its not only us Southern Africans on this campus.

Yeah, I have alot of faith in UNISA and the quality/worthiness of my (future) qualification.


* FOOTNOTE * These facts where correct when I was studying 2002/2003 so don't flame me on this for I don't care .

Sanoz0r Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> In my opinion the stardards are not high enough.
>
> It disturbs me when people base the low assignment
> work load on the fact that studying part time
> while working can be too excessive.



Your obviously still working your way through your first couple of modules I guess?

I do not believe that anybody will find the 3rd yr modules easy unless their in the industry. I might not be there yet, but when I was doing my BCOMM in Management (not finished) I was k@king in my pants when I saw those course contents.




Are you a developer - getting paid of course...????

If not, then I'm glad that you feel this is a easy ride as you will get a job quick quick in the real world. I have seen at work military applications written with less knowledge than what we learn through UNISA.

If there is one thing you only learn as you get older is that EDUCATION IS ONLY THING NOBODY CAN EVER TAKE AWAY FROM YOU

Nope, I'm doing my 3rd year now in SoftEng. I've been doing 11 modules per year (including extra 1st yr maths modules)

I'm not saying it's easy, but I think the standard should be raised - this only results in a more quality degree. I've heard the third year modules are INTENSE - quite amped for that

Yeah, well the reality is when your looking for a job employers want a BSC/BCOMM - anyone will do: WITS; UCT; UNISA - and a couple of years experience. So the fact that UNISA may be easier than other places will never take away the value of its qualification.

I went to school in the bad-old-days when the Western Cape Matric was twice as hard as the Transvaal. Result: Anybody and everybody from the Transvaal got accepted to Universities and nobody cared if they had it easier at getting As, while the rest of us got turned down because our marks weren't good enough.

Rather look at it that with UNISA you've got a better chance at getting your Degree. Its an advantage and you got to be stupid not make use of this

FOOTNOTE TO ABOVE REMARKS: I work as developer with 6 other developers: 1 Doctor, 3 Masters, 2 BCOMS. I'm the only one not with a degree yet they all admire me for studying through UNISA since non of them had the guts to do it (My boss only lasted 1yr at UNISA).

Geez.

 
  ,= ,-_-. =.
 ((_/)o o(\_))
  `-'(. .)`-'
      \_/

http://ilanpillemer.com
Entia non sunt multiplicanda praeter necessitatem

Sanoz0r Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> In my opinion the stardards are not high enough.
> There should be more compulsary assignments (maybe
> 8-10 per module). They should be more involved and
> the answers should NOT be easily extracted from
> the textbooks (such as multiple choice - INF in
> particular).

Hey man, I'm trying to get a degree here. You're 3rd year I'm 1st year. You're almost finished now you want them to up the standard.

Geez man, ask them to up the standard when you're starting off, not when you're almost done.

What about the 1st years. Eish.

The curriculum is good, but too many people pass too easily. Although that can also be a teaching method, letting the knowledge sink in and gel.

I agree with what Ilan said a while back: they should never have gotten rid of cos212. I believe programming theory should be applied through practice.

most companies want you to have some form of formal education, which UNISA does give you. however in my experience your degree mosy of the time isn't going to be enough to get you through. no company wants to spend 3-6 months training you when they could rather get someone who has had exposure to the work that needs to be done. So getting work experience is just as vital as your degree. And yes UNISA is internationally recognised.

I agree with sanazor there should actually be more assignments.
Or at the very least they should NOT have dropped the 100 credit system.
This term mark crap as it currently stands is also nonsense.

--
"Knowledge has much better uses than self-pity and superiority"

They make it easier for you to get exam admission but they haven't dropped the pass mark of the exams, they are still as difficult/easy as they've always been.

they have to make university degrees easier to get because of the extrememly low standard of high school education. Todays education is a big fat joke. Maybe its cool for the run of the mill people who just want to get a high school matric certificate that says they can make pretty pictures but for people who are serious about getting a tertiary education it is a joke.

Getting exam admission is half the work/difficulty. Therefore they have halved the difficulty.

--
"Knowledge has much better uses than self-pity and superiority"

but at unisa the exams are more difficult than the normal work, so who cares if you have 10 assignments to do instead of 3. They don't have time to look at the 3 we need to do now. How will they look at more? And you can do really well i nthe assignments - because you have a textbook in front of you. get to the exams and still flunk badly.

Quote

but at unisa the exams are more difficult than the normal work

Wrong.
There are in fact many subjects where the difficult practical work is only covered in the assignments and the easy to parrot learn theory work is what is in the exam.
In effect this means you no longer need to actually know what you are doing or do any of the difficult practical work at all.

Changing from 3 to 10, I will give you might be a bit excessive, but they should at least keep it at 3 and not change from 3 to none :/

--
"Knowledge has much better uses than self-pity and superiority"

For the INF subjects of course it makes no difference whatsoever because both the assignments and the exam are easy theoretical nonsense that anyone could parrot.

--
"Knowledge has much better uses than self-pity and superiority"

I guess I am then thinking of cos212 - the exam was difficult, and cos211, but aren't these the ones they got rid of?

I say it doesnt matter. If you doing the degree to get a job, most companies (at least the decent ones) will thoroughly test your skills before they hire you. I went to several interviews last year and some of the stuff was far more grueling then any exam I've written so you have to know your stuff if you want to get in.

If you doing it so you can do postgrad stuff and research, I assume there will come a point where you do have to do serious work and cant get away with not knowing what you doing.

So either case, the serious people will excel while the paper chasers will get left behind (unless they go for government positions where they can still get away with incompetence).

bini this is nice in theory.
However people talk and word gets around, if a larger percentage of the people who are coming out of X university are proving to be incompetent when going to interviews or when getting jobs, then people from X university will find themselves no longer even making it to interviews as they will get weeded out of the CV pile before the interview even occurs. (Sort of what happens to people from UKZN at the moment)
University recognition is based mostly on the people that have come out of that uiversity with a degree in the past..

--
"Knowledge has much better uses than self-pity and superiority"

I recall a few years back some people from upe were getting bad reps. I think at some stage all varsities get bad reputations, keep it for a while and then pass it on to the next university

In practice (and this is just based on my experiance), software development compannies care more about experience and how you perform in their tests and interviews then about qualifications and where you got them. I currently work with highly skilled people from whom I learn a lot and they dont even have degrees. When I was searching for a position last year, I specifically targeted software development companies only and sense I got was that they were more interested in what I've done rather than what I have (bear in mind I also dont have a degree yet).

Quote

In practice (and this is just based on my experiance), software development compannies care more about experience and how you perform in their tests and interviews then about qualifications and where you got them. I currently work with highly skilled people from whom I learn a lot and they dont even have degrees. When I was searching for a position last year, I specifically targeted software development companies only and sense I got was that they were more interested in what I've done rather than what I have (bear in mind I also dont have a degree yet).

Yes, this is true.
Especially since degrees in south africa have grown to mean almost nothing.

But I am pretty sure you will still find that in a situation where you have 1000 candidates all with similar levels of experience and degrees. Some of those will get removed from the list based on where there degree is from for example.
(Most companies do not have the time or inclination to interview every single candidate who applies personally, most in fact weed out CV's based on certain criteria before they even start reading the fine details on them.

Once you are at the interview things are of course different, and experience and skill are of course of much greater importance in the field, but to pretend that the quality of a degree has absolutely no impact on its worth at all is I think oversimplifying things just a little bit(to the point of naivety/denial)...
Especially for those students who are just graduating and do not yet have the work experience to back them up.

To take your viewpoint to the extreme(reductio ab absurdia).
Why even bother having exams lets make them optional as well.
Those that want to make it in life will study the material on there own anyway right? And the rest will get weeded out later on in the system.
So we might as well just give everyone who pays a pass and trust that they will have read the textbooks and learnt everything they need from them on there own..


- Sorry about editing the post after you read it, but I actually edited an hour ago and as I was submitting the power failed :/

--
"Knowledge has much better uses than self-pity and superiority"

Well then it just comes down to the personal biases of the person weeding out the CVs. Someone might feel UNISA is useless and someone else might think its great.
Personally, I dont think there is such a thing like "Graduates from institute X tend to do better". Who has done an objective study of such a thing?

Unfortunately, I cant keep on with this discussion and have to go. Cheers

cbrunsdonza Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> I do not believe that anybody will find the 3rd yr
> modules easy unless their in the industry.

i'm no mathematician, and i'm passing 3rd year maths courses almost by accident, studying at most 4 hours for each the night before. it's not because i'm smart (although i'm not stupid), it's because the standards are so outrageously low.

Quote

Well then it just comes down to the personal biases of the person weeding out the CVs. Someone might feel UNISA is useless and someone else might think its great.
Personally, I dont think there is such a thing like "Graduates from institute X tend to do better". Who has done an objective study of such a thing?

Yes this is exactly the problem. It comes down to personal biases and these biases are formed over time(they are not just pulled out of the void).
The more incompetent UNISA graduates there are the more bias there will be against UNISA graduates.(and graduates in general)
This is just a simple fact.

Quote

Unfortunately, I cant keep on with this discussion and have to go. Cheers

Enjoy

--
"Knowledge has much better uses than self-pity and superiority"