My wife is currently a professional who would eventually like to teach at the university level. Because she will surely need a masters degree in her field to do so, she is currently applying to various programs. However, it has come to our attention that the more prestigious universities will not recognize masters degrees from certain schools. Is there a way to ensure that the masters degree she chooses to attain will qualify her to teach at the university level?
Thanks for any guidance…
Seems to me that to teach at the University level, she will need to have a Doctorate degree.
What field of study she’s in would probably be helpful information.
Television production and broadcasting
Not part of one’s standard core curriculum, I know, but these days colleges offer courses with increased specificity and creativity
At the very least, she needs a degree from an accredited school. I don’t know what the appropriate credentialing bodies are in her field, so you’ll have to do some digging. That said, significant professional experience will count for a lot here.
You need a doctorate for a tenure track position. But there are other positions that you can get with just a master’s.
At the least the school must be accredited. I’d suspect that there would be suspicion about a degree from an online university also.
Beyond that, there is an ordering of perceived program quality in each discipline. All things being equal, most would choose someone from a better school. There are various rankings published, but a department may have its own.
To teach in a university as a tenure track professor, at least, you do need a doctorate, unless you have some very special qualifications. (Ed Fredkin, who was head of Project MAC at MIT, didn’t even have a bachelors I believe, and certainly didn’t have a Ph.D. Few of us are Ed Fredkin, though.) For teaching at a community college, a Masters should be adequate. For lower level positions a Masters might do also - I was officially a lecturer for a term with a Masters, but I was really a grad student, that was a deal I worked out with the department to get the teaching duties they sprung on me over quickly.
I agree that knowing the field would help.
Ah, then experience would probably count for more. I think a lot of people teaching writing have experience, not degrees, and this seems more in that mold. I doubt very much they’d put her on a tenure track position though, unless she wants to do research in the area besides teaching. It would depend a lot on the department - what department would this go under?
[QUOTE=Voyager]
At the least the school must be accredited. I’d suspect that there would be suspicion about a degree from an online university also.
The problem then becomes that most programs seem to be “accredited” by somebody – the question then becomes which bodies are the credible ones by whom these programs should be “accredited”
Check the websites for the state universities in your area. They’ll be accredited by whatever the most widely-recognized regional accrediting agency is – a small college might get away with an iffy accreditation, but someone’s going to notice if the state’s flagship university tries that. Also, programs can be accredited by a national organization that oversees that subject area. For broadcasting, that might be ACEJMC.
You may want to post this question on the message board of the Chronicle of Higher Education. Make sure to mention the field in the original post over there.
I vaguely remember seeing this topic discussed regarding this or a similar field, and it being described as one where experience counts and teaching with a Master’s is fairly common. If she will be geographically constrained in where she wants to teach, she should also ask those specific schools.
Or if the terminal degree in your field isn’t normally a doctorate. An MFA is sufficient for the fine arts or drama while and MBA is for business. And as you pointed out even where a doctorate is required there are exeptions. Just look and Vivian Vance or Neil Armstrong.
Ex College Math prof with Masters degree checking in…
If you wish to teach at a 2-year school AND have a degree in a field with demand (Math, hard sciences etc) then you can teach.
However, if you want to teach at Univesity as a Prof or a 2-year school in a field not in the above then you pretty much need a Ph.D.
I don’t think your mileage may vary.
The MBA is not a terminal business degree. There is a doctorate in business. Most schools refer to it as a DBA, but some award PhDs as well.
There’s an unpleasant image.
Neither do I, though I should point out that I did my first two years of teaching at Cal State University–first year before I got the M.A.; second year after I got it.
Then I took off to the community colleges, where you need the M.A. but not the Ph. D.
In terms of technical fields like TV production, a master’s degree is generally sufficient to get you in the door, especially if you’ve got the experience to back it up. Universities will expect you to get a doctorate in order to qualify for tenure. In fact, in my department, pretty much all of the faculty either had their doctorates or were working toward them. The exceptions are two professors who have MFAs, which are the terminal degrees in their respective fields of photography and writing.
That being said, where your wife gets her master’s is important. A master’s from some outfit like the University of Phoenix will probably get her laughed out the door, but a master’s from a school accredited by the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication or eligible for accreditation would be the ideal. She will also want to consider her options for her doctorate, should she want to take it that far, and if she’s teaching at the four-year level, she will probably need to.
She’ll want to contact the AEJMC for further guidance.
One more point: She’s going to want to maintain her professional contacts because they’re invaluable as guest speakers, sources of internships for her students, and so she can go back to work there during her sabbatical year. It’s generally good to keep up with what’s going on in the field you’re teaching. 
Robin, BA, MS in communication, undergraduate emphasis in electronic media
“Regional accreditation” is the level at which it’s clear your program met generally accepted standards.
In some fields, you need further accreditation from a professional organization to say you have an acceptable program. As always, Wikipedia has more information than anyone ever wanted to know.
Which was part of the point of my post. The AEJMC examines programs in mass communication and journalism, and more or less serves as an endorsement that a given program meets certain standards for education in that field. Therefore, the OP’s wife is better off finding a graduate program from a university that is AEJMC-accredited or at least eligible for accreditation.
Robin
My Grandfather taught at U of Penn at Pittsburgh, & he had only a Bachelor’s.
He taught Art & Music, at the Undergrad level.