Portsmouth Business School

Professional Doctorate in Business Administration (DBA)

The DBA is our flagship programme in business and management at Portsmouth Business School. It has been designed for private and public sector management professionals who wish to advance their careers by studying and researching for a doctoral degree in business and management. It allows students to conduct applied, practice –oriented research on topics that are directly relevant to their employing organisations and provide benefits both for their own careers as well as for the employers.

DBAs are increasingly recognised as valuable alternatives to the traditional PhD doctoral research degree that is mostly much more theory-oriented and less applied to concrete organisational problems and needs. The DBA also includes an intensive taught phase that prepares students in considerable depth for the empirical research that they undertake – usually in the organisation where they are currently employed at a senior/executive level. DBA students will have a Masters degree in business and management or a closely related subject and have gained a substantial amount of professional experience from working at senior/executive level.

Study format

The DBA is designed for those who wish to conduct applied research in their current work organisation. During the first year, the study mode is part-time and takes place in three intensive one-week teaching blocks. 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 1 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.

Portsmouth Business School has scored very highly in the recent Research Assessment Exercise (RAE) where it was confirmed as one of the leading business school on the south coast and we have a broad range of highly qualified and experienced supervisors to guide our DBA students through their individual empirical research projects. The research phase will normally take about three years to complete. The normal overall duration of the DBA is 4 years and the study mode is part-time, both during the taught and the research phase.

During the first taught year, the taught units provide in-depth training in research methods and also support the professional development of DBA students. Most of these units are taught and led by Portsmouth Business School professors and all enjoy further input and support from experienced research –active academic staff.

Support during your study

In contrast to the traditional PhD format, where most of the learning takes place via the supervision meetings between doctoral student and supervisor, the DBA provides a much more structured programme of research preparation and support via the teaching input and the mentoring arrangements during the initial first taught year. In addition, from the very beginning, DBA students are encouraged to work together in "learning set" (a small group of 3 or 4 peers who are at the same stage of DBA research as you). Peer support is a major component of the programme, enabling students to benefit from the ideas and learning experiences of colleagues in business and management. During the individual research phase, Portsmouth Business School provides opportunities for DBA students to continue to share their experience with each other and also to present their work-in progress to other DBA students and other research students and academic staff.

Opportunities for students

The DBA offers students the opportunity to:

• Experience a unique approach to intellectual inquiry emphasizing 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

Opportunities for organisations

The DBA offers employing organisations the benefits of:

• An in-depth analysis of a key organisational issue or concern conducted by one of their own senior managers/professionals
• Tapping into the experience of high profile academic experts from Portsmouth Business School
• Work effectively at the crucial interfaces between industry and academia
• Developing and advancing the active professional network of key staff who undertake the DBA research project

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