Doctor of Business Administration

Your research proposal 

A central element of the DBA is the development of a research proposal that addresses a real-world business issue. You'll be supported in identifying a topic of strategic importance to your organisation or industry, conducting rigorous research, and producing a thesis that contributes to both academic knowledge and professional practice.

When you’re applying for the DBA, you’ll need to submit a preliminary research proposal. In this document, you’ll need to outline the structure of your DBA dissertation proposal, with a detailed explanation of the research scope including objectives, a central research question, and relevant theoretical frameworks.

Thesis requirements 

In order to be awarded your Doctor of Business Administration degree, you will have to demonstrate innovation in the application of knowledge through a thesis. The thesis can be delivered in two different formats:

Option 1: A single integrated thesis or monograph
Option 2: Portfolio

For both formats, you will need to examine a real-world problem relating to their business through situation analysis, systematic literature review, synthesis of extant knowledge, problem description, solution design, and implementation evaluation. The key differences between the two options relate to the form in which the results and tangible outputs arising from the project are presented. An indicative word count for the thesis would be 80,000 words.