High-quality doctorate programs require the completion of a dissertation to earn your doctoral degree. ABD means you have completed all the necessary doctorate coursework but have not written and defended your dissertation. ABD doesn’t hold academic weight, and you can’t be called a doctor until you finish your dissertation. According to the Council of Graduate Schools, almost 50% of students who start a Ph.D. program don’t complete their degree. However, Ph.D. programs only represent one type of doctoral degree. Completion stats vary widely between universities and doctoral degree programs. The most significant difference in completing a doctoral degree is often the university and program a student chooses. If you’re ABD, you need to find a student-centered program designed to meet the needs of ABD students.
Published in Chapter:
Innovative Legitimate Non-Traditional Doctorate Programs in Cybersecurity, Engineering, and Technology
Darrell Norman Burrell (Marymount University, USA & Capitol Technology University, USA),
Calvin Nobles (Illinois Institute of Technology, USA),
Maurice Dawson (Illinois Institute of Technology, USA), Eugene J. M. Lewis (Capitol Technology University, USA),
S. Raschid Muller (Capitol Technology University, USA),
Kevin Richardson (Edward Waters University, USA), and Amalisha S. Aridi (Capitol Technology University, USA)
Copyright: © 2022
|Pages: 14
DOI: 10.4018/978-1-7998-9430-8.ch009
Abstract
According to the US Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI) the number of complaints about cyberattacks to their cyber division is up to as many as 4,000 a day. Every year in the U.S., 40,000 jobs for information security analysts go unfilled, and employers are struggling to fill 200,000 other cybersecurity-related roles. Colleges and universities have created certificate, undergraduate, and graduate programs to train professionals in these job roles. The challenge to meeting the cybersecurity workforce shortage through degree programs is intensified by the reality of the limited number of cybersecurity and engineering faculty at colleges and universities. This chapter explores the essential need to develop more doctorate faculty in technology-related areas and explains some unique and non-traditional paths to doctoral completion that allow professionals with significant real-world work experience to complete a doctorate without career interruption and relocation from highly respected and established universities in the US and the UK.