Graduate school for Martial arts

[Shizentai]

My dojo recieved an ad for this program in the mail the other day:

http://www.auwi.org/

At first I thought it was a masters of science program for all martial arts, but I'm thinking now that it's really only Taekwondo, which is not what I study, so it's not personally relevant, just interesting none the less. I think the idea of getting a higher degree in a martial art is kinda cool, though I have no idea how it would be executed.

Thoughts anyone?

[Montana]

Definitely TKD, and in my opinion, a total rip off! What good woudl a degree from this "university" do you other than give you a piece of paper to hang on your wall?

Interesting that I didn't find anywhere on the site about the cost of the program.

Sorry, I'd say total rip off.

[bushido_man96]

I'd have to echo Montana here. It may not be a rip-off, but like he says, I'm not sure what you gain by doing it. Unless you get some classes in things like kineseology, anatomy, and some other physical education related stuff, which you can fill in as an undergrad at most colleges anyways.

There does appear to be an abundance of TKD looking fellows in there, too. There could be some with experience in other styles, but I don't know. There wasn't a lot of info to find exactly what or how they do what they claim to do. It would be interesting to go sit down and interview them to find out what exactly they do there.

[Shizentai]

Well, I didn't mean to sound as though I thought it was reputable. The sheer fact that I can only find one record of this university anywhere other than on their website tipped me off that it was questionable at best. Then I read the one other article (http://www.journaltimes.com/news/local/article_528a9952-9b34-11de-8069-001cc4c03286.html) and I realized that the educational approval board that permitted the school to open used phrases such as these to describe it:

"We were very hesitant about approving this in the first place, and we denied the original application."

"We continue to have some concerns over exactly what's going on."

"They're on a pretty short leash and we continue to have reservations."

so yeah... enough said.

I just meant that the idea of spending my days studying the history, religion, philosophy, physiology, etc. of martial arts sounds like a really awesomely enjoyable way to get a higher degree.

There does appear to be an abundance of TKD looking fellows in there, too. There could be some with experience in other styles, but I don't know. There wasn't a lot of info to find exactly what or how they do what they claim to do. It would be interesting to go sit down and interview them to find out what exactly they do there.

My thoughts exactly. I was half hoping someone on this forum would know something about this, just to quench my curiosity.

[bushido_man96]

I've seen some other places kind of like this, too, but more of an undergrad thing, and Karate was included as well as Kung Fu, I think. They also appeared to have a more structured idea of how to provide for the degree they were geared for.

[still kicking]

I went to the website, just out of curiousity, and did not see any listings of actual academic courses offered. The admissions requirements are extremely minimal as far as academics, and none of the "professors" has any degrees listed after their names. I would love it if there were a course of study specifically in Japanese and Okinawan martial arts, covering history, philosophy, science, etc. as well as physical training, as in P.E. classes. However, if someone is looking for a degree that is respected and recognized widely within academia, it would probably be best to go with a sports medicine degree or Japanese History degree, and take electives and P.E. classes to round it out. It would be awesome just to have a university that offered a lot of MA's at a high level, and a few Japanese (or whatever) history classes with a specific emphasis on development of the MA's. What fun!

[JohnASE]

I have a customer or two that were awarded PhD's in martial arts. I don't remember who gave it to them, but I don't think they were credible. It was not the group linked above. When I found out about it, a couple years ago, I remember looking into them. I think much of their criteria for a degree was not their curriculum, but time spent studying, training in, and teaching martial arts. Sounded sketchy to me, but I didn't really look into it that closely, and I might not be remembering it clearly.

[still kicking]

I guess same as with black belts, all PhD's are not created equal.

[sensei8]

"Students of Martial Arts from all over the world will come here to study under Grand Masters and professors."

That's an assumption, imho. An assumption that any student of the MA should be aware of right from the start. Personally, most "professors" don't have a minimum of an idea about the MA, and any experience with the MA has probably been learned them from some textbook(s), and not from a dojo/dojang.

The journey into the MA takes a lifetime, and in that, who wants to go to some college for a lifetime?

GM's and the like might do all they can do to avoid it as well.