Prepare for your career as an executive. Unlike a PhD, Aston’s Executive DBA is structured for business leaders to build the skills to design and deliver research that makes an impact, strengthen the ability to solve complex business problems, and form an in-depth analysis into a relevant topic and develop a comprehensive research project.
Aston Business School has an international reputation as a top research university with top-tier faculty and teaching scholars and experienced professionals.
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Global DBA Listing
Aston is a premier DBA provider showcased with other prestigious universities such as Harvard and Pepperdine. -
CEO Magazine, 2021
Ranked as one of the world’s top DBA programmes. -
Business and Management Studies
Top 100 in the world. -
Teaching Excellence Framework
Awarded GOLD in 2017. -
Elite Business Schools
Among the elite 1% -
Small Business Charter Gold Award
Exceptional support to the small business community.
The Executive Doctor of Business Administration (DBA)
A specifically tailored Distance Learning Course, coupled with exemplary customer care and world-class supervision, ensures you have all the necessary knowledge to succeed.
The latest version of the Blackboard™ Virtual Learning Environment is designed to meet the needs of the DBA student specifically:
- Podcasts
- Vodcasts
- Directed reading
- Online tasks and quizzes
- Video conferencing for live discussions and research supervision
We also pair you with an academic supervisor who is a leading specialist in the topic you choose. Your supervisor will support you through the entire process as you develop your research idea into your final thesis. If your topic is multidisciplinary, we’ll ensure you have a team that can guide you in every area.
With the Executive DBA, you will be awarded the opportunity to improve skills such as critical thinking, writing, and research. You can also enhance your career outlook: 85% of surveyed professional doctorate graduates stated their degree facilitated their promotion or career change.
The Executive DBA is an independent research experience that distills theory into practice.
- Aston achieved the highest level of quality rating for research impact and research environment in the most recent Research Excellent Framework (REF) assessment.
- Dedicated research centres for SMEs, social enterprise/entrepreneurship, servitization, and more are at your disposal.
Every Executive DBA student is guaranteed to have a supervisor who has an excellent research track record directly related to their DBA topic. This is a rare facility that can only be undertaken by an institution with the research breadth of Aston Business School.
Here are the DBA research topics you can choose from:
- Accounting
- Law
- Economics, Finance and Entrepreneurship
- Marketing and Strategy
- Operations and Information Management
- Work and Organisational Psychology
For direct enrolment into the Executive DBA you must have
- an MBA, MSc or MA degree in business or management (or an equivalent professional qualification)
- a minimum of five years experience in a senior role
- if English isn’t your first language, either evidence that the master’s degree was taught mainly or entirely in English, a minimum TOEFL score of 101 or a minimum IELTS score of 6.5, or an equivalent English language qualification recognised by Aston University is needed
Additionally, you should demonstrate appropriate links to the practice your proposed research refers to.
We are ready to get you started at Aston and answer any questions you may have about the Executive DBA.
Fill out the form above to download a programme brochure and connect with an Enrolment Advisor today.
