Professional Doctorate in Business Administration

Overview

When you join our DBA course, you'll experience an intensive taught phase before conducting applied, work-based research that deals with topics that are directly relevant to your organisation.

So as you learn, you'll develop your professional knowledge and skills to help solve concrete organisational problems in your current workplace – benefiting both your employers and your own career.

What you’ll experience

• Experience a unique approach to intellectual inquiry emphasising the integration of theory and practice
• Conduct practice-oriented research
• Contribute to applied management knowledge
• Develop intellectually and personally as an individual, as an executive and as a contributor to the professional community
• Gain a prestigious doctoral degree achieved through a rigorous, structured and comprehensive educational experience

The benefits of a DBA

The DBA is aimed at senior professionals with postgraduate qualifications who wish to take their management and professional development to new levels, add to their professional body of knowledge and further develop their own management careers.

The research focus of the DBA addresses real business issues, with the results providing professional outcomes that are of direct relevance to your organisation. Research is both theoretical and practical. The DBA thesis is comparable to a PhD in terms of effort, rigour, and contribution to knowledge, supervision and assessment.

Teaching

Our part-time programme involves between three and seven years study (depending on each student's progress) which includes taught modules, research methodology and action research. It's assessed by assignments primarily during year one (taught year), culminating in the assessment of a doctoral level, research-based report in your final year. 

Supervision and support is also a major component of the course. An allocated supervisor will guide and support you throughout your research programme and you will benefit from the ideas and learning experiences of your peers in what we call a ‘learning set’ (a small group of 3 or 4 peers who are at the same stage of DBA research as you).

How you're assessed

Assessment is by coursework assignments at the end of the first year and students progress to the individual research phase after having passed the year one assessment. During the first taught year, students are allocated a mentor to help them develop their research topic in more depth and to prepare them for the research phase where they will be guided by a team of two academic supervisors over the following years.