Professional Doctorate in Business Administration

Entry requirements

A postgraduate level qualification or equivalent in an appropriate management related subject. All applicants require a minimum of three years relevant business and management experience. Evidence of recent Continuing Professional Development or leadership experience in a relevant area of business and management/management science will also be considered. All shortlisted applicants are subject to interview.

English language proficiency at a minimum of IELTS band 6.5 with no component score below 6.0.

Months of entry

January

Course content

Our Professional Doctorate in Business Administration (DBA) is our flagship programme in business and management. It’s designed for private and public sector management professionals – typically at a senior or executive level – who want to advance their careers through a doctoral degree, while continuing their career.

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.

DBA students can:

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.

Structure and teaching

Our part-time programme involves between three and four years study 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).

The course comprises two key stages:

Part one – year 1:

The taught component and assignment assessments. There will be workshops and discussion forums and must be available to attend these. There's no attendance requirement in subsequent years, as your research is likely to comprise independent study in your own organisation, although regular meetings with your supervisor will be necessary.

Part two – years 2, 3 and 4:

The research component and final assessment. A formal ‘Progression Board’, by which students should have successfully completed all first year assignments, denotes progression from stage one to stage two.

A formal ‘Progression Board’, by which students should have successfully completed all first year assignments, denotes progression from stage one to stage two.