Masters in Education

mcfcok1989!
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Masters in Education

Post by mcfcok1989! »

Has anybody had any experience with the MEd offered by University of the People?

https://www.uopeople.edu/programs/ed/de ... ation-med/

It seems to be accredited and is officially endorsed by the IB, but will it be taken seriously by employers?
fine dude
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Re: Masters in Education

Post by fine dude »

Here is what matters in international education:
- An accredited bachelor's degree
- 3 years of accredited school teaching experience
- Ability to teach two subjects (going forward, this will increase your marketability)
- Proven exam results
- Ability to offer extracurriculars
- Team player
- Can-do attitude

Everything else is a bonus. If you're single, marry someone who teaches an in-demand subject (will save you some trouble during hiring). Any decent accredited master's will do, including the one you mentioned. What matters is how capable you're in mentoring gifted as well as struggling kids. I have seen PhDs who couldn't teach/lead and I have been part of hiring committees myself, including leadership positions. Some of our best teachers have only bachelor's degrees from Australia, Canada, and New Zealand.
chemteacher101
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Re: Masters in Education

Post by chemteacher101 »

[quote=mcfcok1989! post_id=58610 time=1587136305 user_id=245045]
Any decent accredited master's will do, including the one you mentioned.
[/quote]
I could be wrong, but I think this one sentence is where you provide some sort of answer to what the OP was actually asking...

Another point of view:
Will it be taken seriously by employers? As many, MANY things in international education: it will vary greatly between schools, and more specifically between recruiters. Some seem to believe that "a Masters is a Masters is a Masters..." while others will definitely give different values to different degrees and where they come from (some schools really like to advertise having teachers with degrees from posh universities). That being said, generally speaking (and this is just my opinion), any Masters degree (independently of its origin) will be taken into account in a similar way. Again, it will vary depending on schools and recruiters, so it will depend (a bit) on what type of school you are aiming for.

As a side note: University of the People is "nationally accredited" but not "regionally accredited". This is an important difference. I.e. most departments of education in the US will not recognize credits from studies that are not "regionally accredited". That being said, they have been met the requirements to be able to apply for regional accreditation, so this may change in the future (probably a couple of years).
Heliotrope
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Re: Masters in Education

Post by Heliotrope »

fine dude wrote:
> If you're single, marry someone who teaches an
> in-demand subject (will save you some trouble during hiring).

And if you can't someone like that, settle for marrying someone you love.
I would add to @fine dude's list:
- international experience
- having spent more than one contract period at a previous school
I've learned that both matter a lot, assuming you're aiming for the better schools.


For the salary boost that comes with having a Masters, the UoP one will suffice (of course there will be a few ISs that might object, but generally speaking you'll be fine).
For getting hired, having a Masters from an Ivy probably does more for you than the one from UoP, but the UoP one is still better than no Masters at all and I don't think many will distinguish much between UoP and another Uni they don't know. I do think any university name sounds better than 'University of the People'. Had I not known it, I would have definitely looked it up to see if it's a real one, since it sounds made up (or Soviet).
fine dude
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Re: Masters in Education

Post by fine dude »

Well, any reasonably intelligent adult obviously marries the one he/she loves. I meant if you had an option in your dating circle, going for a fellow teacher who is compatible is more realistic than marrying a local with no formal qualification or job unless you plan to settle in the latter's home country for good.

International teaching experience is debatable as all the schools I have worked so far (elite/tier 1 schools in 3 continents) have hired directly from public/private schools in Australia, New Zealand, and N.America and some of these folks have been promoted internally to leadership positions. Your calibre is more important than the context of your experience, provided you have taught similar curricula. I see math and science teachers with international experience lacking confidence in guiding students, particularly with their coursework and got mediocre results year after year. All they do is simply blame the students or school curriculum. So, know your stuff really well and be good at communicating it.

To verify UoP's accreditation, you could contact folks at World Education Services (WES) and they should give you a more insightful response. I do know for a fact UoP partnered with Edinburgh, NYU and UC Berkeley.
Heliotrope
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Re: Masters in Education

Post by Heliotrope »

fine dude wrote:
> International teaching experience is debatable as all the schools I have
> worked so far (elite/tier 1 schools in 3 continents) have hired directly
> from public/private schools in Australia, New Zealand, and N.America and

That's weird. In my experience (at tier 1 schools in 2 continents), only very few teachers there had no international experience before being hired, and one of my principals once told me she had bad experiences where those hired without international experience got homesick or had different expectations of expat lives and up and left the schools after their first contract or even before. But it's not that weird, as different principals will have different preferences.
fine dude
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Re: Masters in Education

Post by fine dude »

How weird is weird? Your perspective is based on one principal, mine is based on 5 elite/tier 1 schools. Good leaders hire teachers with right calibre and attitude (with a capital A). So, checking references thoroughly by asking all the right questions is going to be critical. Of course, there will always be one or two exceptions.

Anyway, don't wanna hijack this thread, hope the OP checks with departments of education in his/her target countries and/or credential evaluation organizations to get a qualified response on UoP's accreditation.
Heliotrope
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Re: Masters in Education

Post by Heliotrope »

fine dude wrote:
> How weird is weird? Your perspective is based on one principal, mine is
> based on 5 elite/tier 1 schools.

Good for you. I was just paraphrasing that one principal, but I'm basing it on 4 schools where in all cases there were very few teachers hired without any international experience. My first schools did predominantly hire teachers without international experience, but that was a tier 3 school that many teachers there used to get onto the international circuit.


I talked to two ITs who had inquired with their IS about UoP, and both those school said it was fine and their UoP degree would move them the MA column on the pay scale. Not sure if they actually did the course and how they liked it, as this was a chat during a lunch break at an international event and I'm not in touch with either.
interteach
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Re: Masters in Education

Post by interteach »

It's close enough to a diploma mill to cause you to want to stay far, far away. It's so-called accreditation isn't regional, and any recruiter with a small amount of knowledge of accreditation will spot it. The name is also enough to raise eyebrows.

If you want to work at bottom-feeder schools then go for it, but if you're looking for a degree that won't get laughed at by competent recruiters you should pass on this one.

Other than that, the best reason for getting a master's is because you have identified something you really would like to learn to complement your current abilities.
chemteacher101
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Re: Masters in Education

Post by chemteacher101 »

It is quite an unfortunate name, I agree (it's really strange that no one picked on that before they started doing business, or maybe they really like a name with a Soviet vibe). In regards to accreditation: as I mentioned before they are only nationally accredited. That's very clear and upfront from their part, and it is clearly mentioned on their website. That may be, or not, be a deal breaker depending on who looks at it. I do know a couple of people taking classes there, and they seem to like it, though...

They have recently began the process to seek regional accreditation, but that may take years, and there's no guarantee they will get it. I would say that the only major thing going for it, is the low price. That being said, if you just want to do a Master's degree for the sake of doing it, there are other inexpensive options if you get creative and do your research (and with slightly better sounding names)
fine dude
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Re: Masters in Education

Post by fine dude »

mcfcok1989!
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Re: Masters in Education

Post by mcfcok1989! »

This is all very useful everyone, thanks so much! I'd like to do a Masters because I'm interested but also for career reasons. The cost is attractive, but at the same time I don't want to be working for hundreds of hours on something that doesn't advance me as much as other MAs, either personally or professionally. This came into my mind as I was recently looking at a top school in Europe for a department leadership role and they didn't even give me an interview because I didn't have a Masters, despite experience and other strong qualifications.
chemteacher101
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Re: Masters in Education

Post by chemteacher101 »

If you want a somewhat strange alternative: The UCJC university in Spain has an English-taught Master's degree in International Education which is also endorsed by the IB. It is probably 2.5 times the cost of University of the People, but it is fully accredited, and has a better sounding name and it is still a fraction of any US degree ;)
fine dude
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Re: Masters in Education

Post by fine dude »

This one will cost you 13K US. Accredited and rated highly by employers.

http://www.openuniversity.edu/courses/p ... ations/f70
Smoko
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Re: Masters in Education

Post by Smoko »

fine dude wrote:
> This one will cost you 13K US. Accredited and rated highly by employers.
>
> http://www.openuniversity.edu/courses/p ... ations/f70

That's so expensive though. Why not go for a cheaper regionally accredited US university, or any other UK university at a better price? It won't make any difference to most employers (unless it was something exceptional like Oxford or Harvard).

If/when UoPeople get regionally accredited, or if I somehow end up at an IB school, then I will seriously consider their M.Ed even though the university name sounds like a communist diploma mill. It's only $2,660 USD and could very well pay for itself within a year or two. $13,000 would take significantly longer.
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