Hi guys,

I'd like to ask your opinion on this issue as I get a lot of conflicting answers.

I work full-time at a university in Japan, where I intend to stay for the near future, HOWEVER I do intend to move to either the UK, New Zealand or Australia in the future (in 15-20 years time, I'm 32 now). I have a good MSc in TESOL for which I attended classes. However, this doesn't really cut it in the academic field, even for teaching jobs, so I'm about to start a PhD.

The three courses I'm considering are Birmingham University (UK) PhD Applied Linguistics by Distance Learning; Lancaster University PhD Applied Linguistics by Research Only (not strictly distance, but there are no required classes so I can do it mostly from Japan); Temple University, Japan Campus, PhD Applied Linguistics (this has face to face classes and supervision).

My questions are:

1. In your experience, wherever you are, do people differentiate from a face-to-face PhD and a distance PhD done mostly online?

2. How much does the university I study at make a difference? For instance, Temple a pretty crappy university with a good PhD program, whereas Birmingham is a great university but the PhD is online.

I'd really appreciate any input you have.

Jimmy