Doctor of Business Administration (DBA)

The Henley Doctorate of Business Administration (DBA) is a part-time professional doctoral degree with an international scope and reputation, designed to enhance executive and professional practice through the application of theory and rigorous research into real and complex issues in business and management.

Key to this is a programme to develop personal and consultancy skills in the context of rigorous and relevant research.

By conducting original research in their specialist area, candidates can further their careers and build expertise, to grow competitive advantage and differentiate themselves in the marketplace.

Aims

The Henley DBA will enable you to:

• Develop a sound understanding of the relevant conceptual and theoretical underpinnings of your chosen area of research into business and management.
• Have a detailed understanding of applicable techniques for research and advanced academic and management enquiry.
• Create and interpret knowledge through original research.
• Enhance both your performance as a reflective practitioner and your professional practice.
• Develop personal, consultancy and research competences to undertake rigorous research at an advanced level that contributes to theory and practice in business and management.

DBA and PhDs – Equal but Different

The DBA has both rigour and relevance as it contributes to theory and practice in business and management. The DBA typically focuses on research ‘in’ organisations rather than research ‘on’ organisations. It is more likely to involve cross-disciplinary work and mixed methods and contribute to developing students' own practice and development.

Programme structure

Due to the part-time delivery mode of the DBA programme, you would normally expect to spend four to six years on the programme, with a minimum of three years in exceptional circumstances.

The DBA programme consists of two distinct, but linked stages.

In stage one you will be preparing and developing your ideas and proposals for your own research – through teaching inputs and structured assessment - and developing your competence to undertake research. This stage is scheduled over 18 months, with four one-week compulsory workshops covering: Research and Personal Development, Introduction to Research methodology, Qualitative research methods and Quantitative research methods. This stage also includes research colloquia and other optional seminars.

The second stage of the DBA will focus primarily on independent research with the support of supervisors and will include attendance at research presentation seminars. You will prepare your doctoral thesis, which will be examined by internal and external experts in the field.

How to apply

To be considered for entry onto a Henley research degree, please complete the online application process and provide one business reference, one academic reference and a short research outline. Guidance for writing this is given on Henley’s website.

Students are required to submit a short research outline in an area of research-related expertise. Only research outlines that match an available research topic will be considered, and students must indicate the research topic on their research outline.