Experiences of an Online Doctoral Course in Teacher Education

Why We Choose That Particular University And Programme

There are four reasons why we choose a United Kingdom University and a doctoral degree programme in teacher education. Firstly, seeming inefficiencies displayed by some international universities to which Despina had applied. For example, not getting a prompt reply to emails, not being given clear ideas regarding the content of the courses they offered and a general sense of disorganization in the type of promotional material sent to perspective students. Also, having completed master’s degrees from United Kingdom universities we came to trust the system of higher education there, and were confident of the fact that a UK degree was recognised and accepted in most parts of the world.

Secondly, our university of choice offered overseas students what seemed to be very reasonable fee structures, when compared with other international universities offering similar programmes. The average fee for a doctoral programme in a USA University was approximately $20,000 per annum when converted was approximately £12,000 per annum, while the average fee for a UK doctoral degree was £2,000-£3,000 per annum. What was of particular interest was the ‘new deal’ for overseas students offered by our chosen university. This allowed students’ annual fee to remain the same throughout the duration of their studies. This meant that the fee was not subject to inflation. This was of particular interest to Mark, who at the time was a non-European resident and therefore paid a much higher fee. He paid £3,650 per annum while a local UK or European student paid approximately £1,200 per annum.