DBA

The world of business and commerce demands highly competent professionals – individuals who are equipped with the ability to make key decisions and face strategic challenges head on. If you want to be able to support your judgement with evidence-based data and bring measurable change to your organisation, the Doctor of Business Administration course is ideal.

Similar to the PhD, the DBA is the highest qualification achievable in Higher Education (Level 8). It is a common choice for practicing managers and senior professional practitioners who wish to pursue their academic, personal and career development beyond a Masters degree (Level 7) through a rigorous and challenging programme of study and research. The DBA is aimed at those who want to make a difference to the way that management and professional practice in the fields of organisation and management will be developed in the future.

The DBA has been designed for senior executives and other professionals in strategic management positions from diverse industries and sectors of the economy. DBA candidates advance their respective fields by conducting original practice-based research and thus contributing to professional practice by developing existing theories and knowledge in the field.

The programme is designed to give you the freedom to develop your own ideas and interests, whilst benefiting from the shared experiences of your peers through small study groups. The philosophy of the programme is based on the belief that this level of management education is based on three inter-related objectives:

• The provision of an academically challenging and stimulating curriculum.
• The application of the curriculum to an appropriate managerial and professional context.
• The development of your personal and professional effectiveness, and your continuing ability to be a successful reflective management practitioner.

The overarching objectives are thus to:

• Enhance your ability to question, analyse, critique and theorise through the undertaking of a programme of research, and so develop your professional management practice.
• Provide sound training in the design, execution and analysis of research to enable you to complete a thesis and potentially other academic publications that represent original contributions to the practice of management and thereby business and management knowledge.
• Recognise the relationship between management research and the professional practice of management within business organisation.
• Facilitate and foster your ability to question and challenge received wisdom in business and management arena, and consider how learning is translated into management practice, and practice into business and management theory.
• Build a rich community of reflective business and management practitioners.

The parallel strands of professional development and management research training offered by the DBA are designed to provide mutual enhancement of theory and praxis within the learning experience.

The DBA is planned to develop your professional and research skills and encourage the application of original thought to management practice. It is concerned with professional development through knowledge creation and will benefit both the individual career of the successful graduate, as well as the profession and organisation in which you are, or may in the future be, employed. You will be able to employ your new knowledge and skills across a wide range of professional occupations, especially those where critical thinking and knowledge creation in relation to professional tasks is necessary and highly valued.