Doctor of Business Administration DBA

(9 months into the course)

You will discuss with a panel a 5000-word critical reflection of your practice and your context that engages with relevant literature and theories.

In the second stage, you will gain a more advanced understanding of the methodologies that you can bring to study your professional practice and context and you will design a research proposal, solidly grounded in the academic, professional and methodological literature.

(18 months into the course)

You will discuss with a panel your 10,000 words research proposal, which will include a process of collection of empirical data or a cycle of product development.

(Note: you can exit the programme with an MProf,  a research award at Master’s level, by undertaking review stage 1 at 9 months and review stage 2 at 12 months)

You undertake a major research project that is current to your organisation or your sector and that has identifiable practical applications and impact. Your final thesis will be 65-80,000 words long. If you present an artefact, the critical commentary for it will be 35-40,000 words long.

This stage with the submission of your doctoral project and with a viva examination with a panel that will include examiners external to the University. This panel will decide on the awarding of the doctorate.

Throughout the course, which is studied part-time, your focus will be on your professional activity in an organisational or industry context. The DBA provides a structured framework for critically understanding your professional activity, and equips you to operate as a reflective professional practitioner. The research project provides an opportunity for you to critically evaluate the learning you achieve while leading significant change in the workplace, and to express this in writing in a systematic way that is both informed by and informs relevant theory.

The Middlesex DBA recognises that professional practice is grounded in real organisations, in which the context is often interdisciplinary, and that practitioners taking the course will often belong to specific professional bodies. In order to recognise and harness the subject- and profession-specific nature of practitioners' individual practice, those taking the DBA will be encouraged to build learning relationships with other candidates working in similar spheres of activity.

Assistance will be available from expert and highly experienced staff within the Business School, especially in the following areas:

• Organisational development and culture
• Change management
• Sustainable business
• Leadership development
• Entrepreneurship
• Finance
• Human resource management and development
• Management and equality, diversity and inclusion
• Marketing
• Tourism
• Executive coaching

The course requires attendance in person once a term, three times per year, for residential sessions or tutorials (depending on whether you are part of a cohort or undertaking it individually). Aside from the on-campus sessions, access to the supervisory team can be online. You will have access to the University Researcher Development Programme and the full stack of library digital and physical resources. The final viva would usually take place in person. Overall, the mode of delivery of the programme can be described as hybrid. This means that there is no need for overseas students to acquire a student visa, because a full-time residence in the UK is not required for study on the programme, but ability to travel to campus for the quarterly sessions (three per academic year) is essential.

In addition to being able to draw on the expertise of tutors, a possible specialist consultant, and other participants in your cohort, you will also have the support of a dedicated academic advisor throughout your period of study with us.

Assessments are authentically designed in that they replicate the types of activities students would expect to undertake when progressing in their marketing careers. The programme is purely assessment based, with no exams.

The assessments take the form of essays, reports, presentations, audits, and other types. The assessments will critically evaluate complex situations by gathering information from a diverse range of sources and develop well-informed and justified solutions to digital marketing challenges.