Chronicle Editor
Simbarashe Murima
A QUALIFICATION after completing a study programme displays an individual’s knowledge and skills edifice in a professional field.
The candidate hopes to use these abilities developed through higher education learning to obtain productive and meaningful employment.
Conversely, I posit that attaining multiple degrees from the same higher institution of education is generally not a good impression.
This shows the candidate being unadventurous or unwilling to get out of their comfort zone.
It shows a lack of an intellectually and culturally responsive approach to learning and diversity.
Thus, diversity in this context encompasses the institution’s system, learner’s experiences, skills, knowledge, attitudes and faculties.
Instead, diversity is essentially a critical and transformative factor that positively impacts student’s education and learning.
It’s often perceived as incestuous by other institutions. Especially where the university has declined in reputation and credibility.
For example, you attain your qualifications from the same institution (for illustrative purposes) as follows:
Qualification Institution
Bachelor’s Degree (Honours) MSU (Zimbabwe)
Masters MSU (Zimbabwe)
PhD MSU (Zimbabwe)
Rather, in my view, I would suggest your qualifications should look as follows:
Qualification Institution
Bachelor’s Degree (Honours) MSU (Zimbabwe)
Masters U.J (South Africa)
PhD Boston University (USA)
I reason that it is fine to acquire your degrees from the same institution, but if you want to stay in academics, post-doctorate should be pursued somewhere else. Institutional qualification diversity is indispensable.
Though, one with three degrees from any reputable university still looks respectable.
It is just a question of getting a broader perspective for you to become a well-rounded academic or researcher and that one university may only provide you with a fractional perspective.
As for the different perspectives argument, a student can still be exposed to different ideologies and dogmas in the same institution.
But it can be limiting with regards to his/her academic social networking and exposure to various educational culture miscellany.
It is often said people should move around.
Your alma mater has a huge significance when it comes to pursuing your Masters, PhD other graduate/professional qualification.
Studying from different universities or colleges proffers you to a wider academic experience and scholarly web.
Besides, having all three degrees from the same university will look bad and academically buttoned-up for your Curriculum Vitae.
Relatively, a CV is a crucial piece of own marketing to promote yourself to an employer and other higher institutions to obtrude.
In my opinion, it is imperative to learn how to adapt to different teaching and learning environments to gain multifarious of academic cultures, research instructional learning, competiveness etc.
Nevertheless, you will likely be less competitive for academic positions compared to an alumni who has built up a wider network of collaborators and references.
Laconically, my views may be thought-provoking considering the various push factors and financial challenges individuals they may be facing and that leads them to acquire their qualifications from the same institution.
But then I discern to inspire students to pursue and complete their degrees from various institutions to validate openness to academic change and become scholastically competitive.
Mr Simbarashe Murima (PhDc) Research Fellow
Writing in his own capacity as an Education, Tourism and Hospitality expert in Namibia and Zimbabwe.
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