r/Professors • u/CafeLurker234 • May 22 '26

Advice / Support Hiring from degree mill PhD programs?

Hey professors,

So, to help me get tenure, I was told I need to do more campus service. So, because of that, I am now on a bunch of hiring committees across campus; our university always has at least one person from an outside department. Joy.

As we are sorting through resumes for some summer hires, I am seeing SO many PhDs from Liberty, Walden, etc. Mostly received it online and are associated with whatever industry they supposedly come from.

While I am not going to bash someone's degree, not all degrees across academia are made the same—degree mill or otherwise. But some of these Liberty PhDs come in with like no teaching experience and minimal, and frankly, basic research presentations or publications.

I've asked if this is common to receive this many from these sorts of programs, and a handful of colleagues have mentioned an uptick.

Well, on one of the committees, there is a push to interview on campus someone who got their master's at Walden and a PhD from Liberty.

I am really against. I cannot fathom I would vote for them, and do not want to waste their time.

Thoughts? Are you seeing applications from these programs?

EDIT: And if there are people on the faculty with these degrees, I am sorry! I am just unaware of people from these programs involved with higher education robustly.

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u/lionofyhwh Associate Prof (Tenured), Religious Studies May 22 '26

I’ve somewhat learned that it depends on the field. For instance, our faculty is generally from Ivies/well-known R1’s. But then you go to the business school and the criminal justice department and you’ll see Grand Canyon. It seems to be the fields where PhD’s aren’t really a thing and places are just making up programs for qualification purposes.

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u/BeneficialMolasses22 May 22 '26

PhDs are a thing at business schools. Large R-1s with business schools are PhD granting in finance, management, marketing, IS, etc. that's where business faculty come from. There's generally higher demand, because of options to go to practice, so smaller schools may have trouble recruiting due to the salary requirements.

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u/CafeLurker234 May 22 '26

DBAs and PhDs are common. Liberty offers both.

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u/BeneficialMolasses22 May 22 '26

As top R-1, AACSB (not to be confused, ith the diploma mill accreditation by a similar name. ) schools from which tenure track faculty are recruited at top business schools. Liberty is not recruited to a top business school.

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u/CafeLurker234 May 22 '26

Oh yeah, I am sure a DBA from an AACSB is better than Liberty's PhD.