What is a Doctorate in Business Administration?
Business professionals have the opportunity to take their skills and knowledge to the next level through advanced doctoral-level study. This level of academic credential opens the way to new or expanded leadership roles in the field of business through teaching, research, consulting and more.
Marshall University in Huntington, West Virginia, offers this unique pathway to achieving broader influence in business through its Doctor of Business Administration (DBA) degree program. Accredited by the AACSB, Marshall University’s DBA is the first and only such doctoral program in the state of West Virginia.
Marshall’s doctoral degree in Business Administration is a three-year, cohort-based, hybrid program with online courses and selected face-to-face meetings on campus. Newly launched in 2021, the DBA program is designed for busy working professionals and academics who want a convenient and flexible way to further advance their professional careers in business.
Specifically, the cohort-based DBA program helps students develop the ability to identify and solve actual business problems while using a practice-based research model. Led by the distinguished and diverse faculty in the Brad D. Smith Graduate School of Business, the DBA provides quality business education through innovative approaches such as experiential learning and design thinking to bridge the gap between theory and practice.
Why Study Business Administration at Marshall?
Comprehensive program. The Doctor of Business Administration degree program is a 66-credit-hour, three-year full-time program. Coursework is completed during the first two years, and the third year is devoted to completing a dissertation. The entry term for the DBA program is August / fall semester.
Marshall’s Business Administration doctorate is very affordable with a per-credit-hour cost of $850. Students are eligible for financial aid.
DBA students can choose from three concentrations to focus on one broad business area. They are required to complete a proposal and dissertation on this topic area. Doctoral students also are required to attend two academic conferences related to their concentration area that are approved by the DBA Program Committee. The concentrations for the online Doctor of Business Administration degree are:
Unique approach. The DBA program is well-positioned to accommodate the needs of busy working professionals who want to advance their current career or transition to an academic career. This doctoral program is also a way for adjunct or term faculty to obtain a terminal degree to advance their academic careers. The program offers flexibility with hybrid course delivery: online asynchronous instruction with only five on-campus visits per academic year.
Doctor of Business Administration degree students learn rigorous research methods that can be applied to real-world, multidisciplinary problems and areas of inquiry. The program also enables DBA students to:
Graduate Business Administration students study seminal and contemporary business literature to develop research questions in their area of interest. They also conduct literature reviews, design and perform research studies, analyze data, and draw relevant conclusions that affect economic development and business innovation.
Program delivery. The Business Administration doctoral program features hybrid classes that include both online and face-to-face on-campus interactions. On-campus classes meet twice during the fall and spring semesters, and once in the summer semester, on Fridays and Saturdays, and consist of 12 to 15 hours of instruction. Remaining coursework is completed online using Marshall’s MUOnline learning platform. Online courses are delivered asynchronously so students can work at their own pace.
Career Outlook for Doctor of Business Administration Graduates
The overarching focus of Marshall’s doctorate in Business Administration is to apply theoretical knowledge to the advancement of business practice. As a result, graduates of the DBA program will:
Doctor of Business Administration Jobs
DBA students are in a great position, upon graduation, to pursue a tenure-track faculty position in business schools and/or to become business leaders in such roles as consultant, business owner, C-suite executive, senior business executive, entrepreneur, healthcare administrator, economist, market analyst, policymaker, government employee, director of human resources and more.
According to data from the American Association of University Professors, the average full-time college professor, combining all instructor types and university categories, made $101,810 in the 2020-21 academic year. Full professors in the U.S. made an average of $140,543 during that same period.
Employment in business and financial operations occupations is projected to grow 5 percent through 2029, faster than the average for all occupations, adding about 476,200 new jobs, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS).
Increasing use of data and market research in order to understand customers and product demand, and to evaluate marketing strategies, will lead to growing demand for market research analysts.
Business jobs and salaries. According to the BLS, a sampling of business and financial occupations includes the following, along with their 2020 median (or midpoint) salaries:
Overall, the median annual wage for business and financial occupations was $72,250 in May 2020, which was higher than the median annual wage for all occupations at $41,950, reports the BLS.
Opportunities for Doctor of Business Administration Students
There are many things to consider when selecting a Doctor of Business Administration program. As part of Marshall University and the Lewis College of Business, the Brad D. Smith Graduate School of Business’ DBA program is a distinctive doctoral-level program that offers students important opportunities.
International Accreditation
The Lewis College of Business holds accreditation from the Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business (AACSB International), a global organization that provides quality assurance, business education intelligence, and learning and development services to more than 1,700 member organizations and more than 800 accredited business schools worldwide.
The mission of AACSB is to foster engagement, accelerate innovation and amplify impact in business education. AACSB standards ensure quality and continuous improvement in collegiate business education. The Lewis College of Business is accredited in both Business and Accounting, a hallmark of excellence in business education earned by fewer than 5% of the world’s business schools.
Strong Reputation
U.S. News & World Report’s Best Colleges rankings have recognized Marshall University among the nation’s top higher education institutions. As part of a business school with high-ranking academic departments, DBA students learn from leading scholars and practitioners on the Marshall faculty. Doctor of Business Administration students also become part of the Herd Nation, a powerful network of more than 100,000 Marshall alumni spread across all 50 states and 135 countries.
An Affordable Investment
For business executives and professionals motivated to reach their full potential, the quality, flexibility and affordability of the DBA program make it a wise investment. Marshall University’s Doctor of Business Administration is one of the most affordable DBA programs in the country. Basic tuition costs and fees for the DBA program are approximately $57,000 for the three-year, 66-credit-hour program.