The International Executive Doctorate (DBA) is the highest level business qualification attainable. It is designed for experienced senior managers, executives and entrepreneurs who already have a master’s degree and wish to carry out in-depth research on a key management issue in their field.
The controversy surrounding the DBA degree is whether it is a classic academic qualification, equivalent to a PhD, or a practitioner qualification, for those who already hold an MBA. A DBA from Harvard Business School for example is regarded as an academic qualification, while a DBA from Henley or Cranfield in the UK is rather seen as a practitioner degree.
In fact, the focus of a DBA is to make a contribution to management practice and policy, unlike the PhD which focuses on a significant contribution to theoretical knowledge. Both degrees shares the essential features of precision of thought and an awareness of what others have previously written about an issue. The major difference between the DBA and the PhD is therefore the degree structure that allows and even leads the candidate to a more applied outcome for the DBA.
Schools in Australia, New Zealand, Hong Kong and Europe already run executive DBA programmes, most of which are part-time programmes. In the US, GSU and Case Western are leaders in the field. In the pacific region the International Graduate School of Business at the University of South Australia promotes the degree.
Now, TiasNimbas Business School of Tilburg University in the Netherlands announced a Memorandum of Understanding with Cranfield School of Management in the UK to offer a joint dual degree International DBA programme, studied part-time over four years.
This programme aims at being both: a DBA and a PhD in one go. Professor Alan Harrison, Director of the Cranfield International Executive Doctorate said: “We believe this program is the first doctoral program in the world that leads to two degrees: a DBA from Cranfield and a PhD from Tilburg University.”
The Cranfield DBA is one of only seven programmes worldwide to be accredited by the Association of MBAs, the world's impartial authority on postgraduate management education. The first students to be recruited to the new dual degree International DBA programme will start their studies in September 2012.
More information is available at Cranfield.
Fellow Programme in Management (FPM) would also be similar to a PhD. In India, top B-schools like the IIMs and ISB offer FPM rather than PhD.