Doctor of Business Administration

Overview & facilities

The Middlesex DBA is designed to raise the level of professional capabilities of practising senior managers and executives. It does this by developing the practitioner's skills of reflective practice, by enhancing their knowledge of leading-edge areas of business, and by providing the opportunity to develop their capabilities in practice-based research by means of a major research project. During the first two phases of the course, this is achieved through a combination of taught and self-study elements. During the third phase of the programme of study, participants undertake a major research project that focuses on the work they are undertaking in their organisation as senior professionals, typically in change leadership roles.

Who is the Middlesex DBA for?

Our DBA is designed for busy senior managers and executives who want to gain new insights and perspectives into leadership and management based on critical exploration of their own evolving professional practice. It is particularly appropriate for those wishing to improve their capability to lead and manage change in an established or new organisation without having to seek time off for formal study. A key role is played in their capability enhancement by the capstone research project, which enables practitioners to improve their professional practice by undertaking rigorous research into that practice.

How is the Middlesex DBA studied?

You can start the DBA in September or February, and you study part-time over 4 to 5 years. Most of your study will be undertaken while you continue your role as a senior professional. However, there are occasional seminars, workshops and lectures which will involve you attending our north London campus, usually in the evening or at the weekend. Throughout the programme of studies, you will have the support of your tutors, you personal academic adviser, one or more specialist consultants, and your peers on the programme.

What is distinctive about the Middlesex DBA?

• It is the professional equivalent of the academic PhD (Doctor of Philosophy), but designed specifically to support participants in undertaking practice-based research into their workplace activities. While the knowledge gained from this research is equally rigorous to the PhD, it is distinctive in that the participant is placed at the centre of their research investigation, and their findings tend to be highly applicable within their organisation.
• It provides participants with the opportunity to enhance their professional capabilities at an advanced level through the study of elective modules. These capabilities will feed into, and be evaluated through, the participant?s research project.
• Because senior professionals have achieved a significant amount of both formal and informal learning, sometimes over many years, the DBA provides an opportunity to make a claim for academic credits against relevant prior learning. It focuses on developing participants' individual capabilities as reflective practitioners, and through this enhancing their capability for undertaking high-level, practice-based research within their own workplace.
• Participants? study paths and projects are tailored to meet their individual needs and interests, and those of their organisations.

For more information, please contact: Professionals@mdx.ac.uk

Content & modules

Modules

• Phase 1

  Review of Professional Capability (30 Credits) - Compulsory

  This module provides an opportunity to show that you are equipped for the high-level work required on the rest of the doctoral programme in three areas the ability to learn from experiential practice; the professional capability to lead workplace interventions of the kind that will form the basis for their research investigations; and the ability to undertake practitioner-oriented research. These capabilities are reported in a piece of persuasive written argumentation (the Review), supported by relevant documentary evidence, which critically evaluates and sets out your credentials for work at doctoral level in all three areas. Much of this review is retrospective, in that it considers your personal and professional learning leading up to this course, and your research competence to date. Some of it is more future oriented, in that it considers how well you are equipped to lead and manage emerging and new workplace activities, and how you intend to improve your capabiliy for achieving these changes. The Review forms the basis for any claims made for the recognition and accreditation of prior learning (see below), both in relation to professional learning and research capability (such claims are included as appendices to the review). It also signals any areas of professional competence which you intends to enhance by targeting elective modules (also described below).

  Recognition and accreditation of prior learning, AND-OR elective modules (up to 90 Credits) - Compulsory

  As part of your Review of Professional Capability, you are invited to submit written claims (supported by relevant evidence) for the academic accreditation of your prior learning, typically in an organisational context. If you do not make such claims, or you make them but they are deemed to be inappropriate or insufficient for the credits claimed, then you will take one or more elective modules in their place. These modules will focus mainly on the development of reflective practice skills; the development of practitioner research skills; and the development of specific professional capabilities.

• Phase 2

Accreditation of advanced learning (up to 120 Credits) - Optional

You are invited to submit written and evidenced claim for accreditation of advanced prior learning, again in an organisational context. Such a claim is likely to be made by candidates who have significant professional experience and major responsibility for leading and managing change in their organisation.

Elective modules (up to 60 credits) - Optional

You have the option of selecting one or more elective modules to support your research project. These are likely to be drawn from a pool of modules available in the Business School and-or across the University, but they may also be drawn more widely from other CPD and professional training opportunities available to you. (The selection of electives should be discussed with your academic adviser. External modules will need to be formally accredited for the course.) The main focus of these modules will be on the development of advanced practitioner research skills, and the development of specific professional capabilities.

Planning an Advanced Practitioner Research Programme (60 Credits) - Compulsory

The main aim of this module is to enable you to consider the range of approaches and methodologies relevant to professional practitioner research work, and to use this knowledge to design and plan one or more doctoral research projects aimed at developing your capabilty as a practitioner-researcher, advancing your organisation, and contributing to your community of practice and-or profession.

Phase 3
Project (240-360 Credits) - Compulsory 
This module provides students with a means of applying the research skills gained during Phase 1 to a substantial project focused on their evolving role as change leaders within their organisation. The project provides a context in which the candidate will integrate and develop further their professional practitioner skills and knowledge. The project topic will be chosen in discussion with the academic adviser and the candidate's chosen consultant(s), and will have major outcomes in terms of personal professional development, organisational benefits and broader relevance to the professional community to which the candidate belongs. The aim is for students to develop a project in relation to a specific organizational issue or problem. It enables students to demonstrate proficiency in relation to the scope of the relevant issues identified, consider relevant literature relating to the project, collect and apply data, consider the financial implications including any cost/benefit analysis in relation to justifying specific recommendations as well as consider any other relevant implementation issues.

Course struture
The course is divided into three main phases: the first and second last for a minimum of one semester (6 months) each, and the third continues for a minimum of three further years. Throughout the course, which is studied part time, your focus is on your professional activity in an organisational context. The DBA provides a structured framework for critically understanding your work-based activity, and equips you to operate as a reflective professional practitioner, in order to interrogate the learning you are achieving in the workplace, and to express this in writing in a systematic way that is informed by, and in turn informs, relevant theory.

For more information, please contact: Professionals@mdx.ac.uk 

Entry & applying

Normally a masters degree or above, or an overseas equivalent qualification. You should also have a minimum of five years managerial or professional experience in a full-time senior position. Managerial experience means managerial responsibility for people, and/or functions, and/or technical expertise, and would normally, typically involve experience of change leadership.

If you would like to apply for the DBA please download an application form.

For more information please contact:

General enquiries telephone: +44 (0) 20 8411 5555

Email:  Professionals@mdx.ac.uk

Address:
The School Office
Middlesex University Business School
The Burroughs
London
NW4 4BT
United Kingdom

Fees & funding

Year 1: £8,000
Years 2-4: £4,700 per year
Year 5: write up

Fees include;

• all tuition and supervisory support
• all study materials
• full access to our virtual learning environment (VLE)
• full access to library and electronic database.