DBA Business Administration (DBA) (Online) Doctorate

The DBA (Online) is designed for people who have achieved, or expect to achieve, senior organisational positions and/or who wish to enhance their analytical and research skills and knowledge.

• A master's degree: applicants should have a master's degree in a subject that has aspects that relate to business and/or management.
• +3 years' management experience: all applicants should have a minimum three years' managerial experience.
• Research proposal: to be considered, all applicants are required to submit a clear and comprehensive research proposal template, clearly articulating:
  1. A working title: this doesn’t need to be the final title of your project, but it must show you have thought about what you hope to achieve.
  2. A general overview: a brief section about the subject area you are looking at and how it fits into which discipline(s).
  3. Expected results, importance and originality: what kind of results do you hope to achieve? What contribution are you looking to make in your chosen subject area?
  4. Personal interest and motivation: your motivation for the topic can stem from various sources, such as the professional benefits you might gain, a desire to learn more about the subject, or an aspiration to implement changes based on your research in the future.
  5. Research aims, objectives and key questions: these are crucial to outline. What specific questions are you looking to answer? What do you hope to discover? If you are conducting original research, explain your hypothesis. Be cautious not to set an unrealistic number of goals or be overly ambitious. While ambition is valuable, it is essential to ensure you can realistically achieve the objectives you have described.
  6. A review of the relevant literature: this is not an extensive literature review, but you must demonstrate an understanding of the critical issues, themes and debates within the relevant literature. You should reference key texts and briefly explain their significance to your research area. In this context, you summarise prior research on your topic. A DBA involves original research focused on real-world problems, so you must show that your study addresses a gap in existing research.
  7. Methodology: how do you plan to conduct this research? What methods will you use? Are you pursuing qualitative data, quantitative data or both? Will you conduct lab experiments or use questionnaires? What options are available and what methods could you consider? Why have you chosen these methods? Where are you likely to access your data?
  8. Bibliography: provide a short reference list of the literature you have reviewed. We recommend using the research proposal guidelines and to allow one month to create your research proposal (before application). It's best to download the template now – your proposal must be submitted using this template or it will not be accepted.
• English language: applicants whose first language is not English will need to satisfy the English language requirements which are a minimum overall score of 6.5 IELTS, and 5.5 in each band.

All prospective students will be interviewed. Applicants must show they have recent and relevant study or practice in the field of business and/or management.

The interview will normally explore

• reason for your application
• work experience
• previous postgraduate qualifications
• research experience
• research areas of interest
• all aspects of the research proposal
• anything else deemed appropriate by the tutor connected to the proposed research.

See our website for fees

Advanced Research Project

This research-based module guides you through conducting real-world research under the supervision of two experts, generating academically and practically impactful knowledge. You complete a doctoral-level thesis of approximately 40-50,000 words and participate in a viva voce to defend your work. Both are required for the Doctor of Business Administration award, along with submitting satisfactory ethical clearance.

Critical Issues in Policy, Organisation and Management Research

Examine interdisciplinary approaches to research in policy, organisation and management, using theories and methods from fields like political science, economics, sociology and public administration. Build skills to critically evaluate policy and organisational challenges through analysis of diverse literature and research methods. Learn to synthesise existing knowledge, assess data and develop frameworks to produce literature reviews that support evidence-based policymaking, enhance governance and deepen scholarly insights.

Interdisciplinary Research Design for Doctoral Students

The module incorporates diverse traditions within social sciences, introducing a range of research philosophies and methods. You gain the foundational understanding you need to critically engage with literature and make informed methodological choices in your research, including considerations of data analysis and ethics.

Modules offered may vary.