Online DBA Degree Overview
In the Online Doctorate of Business Administration (DBA) program, industry and academic professionals build masters-level skills to develop competencies in conducting action research and comprehending theoretical and applied literature in a chosen business discipline. An online DBA represents a commitment to personal and organizational growth with in-depth research of practical knowledge in the latest business research, theories and trends that may be directly applied to a specific area within the workplace.
Students must choose a concentration in:
- Accounting
- Customized Professional Concentration
- Information Systems
- International Business
- Management
- Marketing
Admissions Requirements
- A master's degree in business administration, management, public or non-profit management, engineering management, JD, LLM, or other degree demonstrating exposure to managerial knowledge; the degree must be awarded by a regionally accredited institution, nationally accredited institution approved and documented by the dean of the Graduate School of Business and Management, or an appropriately certified foreign institution.
- At least three (3) graduate credit hours or six (6) undergraduate credit hours in each of the following: accounting, finance, economics1
- To be eligible to select the accounting concentration, applicants must have twelve (12) graduate credit hours in accounting.
- A grade point average of at least 3.0 (on a scale of 4.0) in work leading to the master's degree, and in any subsequent graduate study
- At least three (3) years and preferably five (5) years of full-time managerial or professional experience, documented by a recently updated resume or an online professional profile. If not currently employed, the applicant must show active participation in professional organizations.
- A minimum score on an Argosy University pre-approved English language proficiency test is required for all applicants whose native language is not English or who have not graduated from an institution at which English is the language of instruction as specified in Section Five, Admission Policies, "English Language Proficiency Policy."
All applications for admission must be submitted to the Admissions Department. An admissions representative is available to help interested applicants complete the following required documentation:
- Completed Application for Admission Form
- Documentation of managerial experience and participation in a professional organization
- Official transcripts from the institution that conferred the master's degree and any institutions where graduate coursework was subsequently taken. Bachelor's level transcripts are not required.2
Notes
1Students may be accepted into the DBA degree program without these functional courses but must complete designated master's level course work in these fields prior to beginning the DBA degree program coursework. Tuition for prerequisite courses is the same as tuition for doctoral courses.
2Undergraduate transcripts might be needed to demonstrate fulfillment of prerequisites.
Course List
The DBA degree program requires the satisfactory completion of 60 credit hours distributed as follows: research requirements, 15 credit hours; core course requirements, 18 credit hours; concentration requirements, 12 credit hours; elective requirements, 3 credit hours; and doctoral research requirements, 12 credit hours.
Students enrolled in the DBA degree program are required to complete five research courses (15 credit hours).
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Students enrolled in the DBA degree program are required to take six core courses (18 credit hours).
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Students enrolled in the DBA degree program are required to take four courses (12 credit hours) in one of the designated concentration areas or receive permission to develop a customized professional concentration. Many DBA degree program students will seek full-time or part-time teaching opportunities in a variety of college-level organizations. The depth and breadth of graduate course work required by such institutions vary. Consequently, depending on the career interests of the student and the specific educational background, those DBA degree program students should consider using elective credit hours in the academic discipline in which they hope to teach.
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Students selecting this concentration work with a faculty advisor and the department chair to develop a learning contract tailored to individual needs and reflective of a coherent interdisciplinary field of study. Students are required to take four courses (12 credit hours), which are pre-approved by the department chair, in order to complete the Customized Professional Concentration and focused on a particular theme or issue relevant to business and management. A maximum of two courses (6 credit hours) may be taken as directed independent study courses.
In addition, students enrolled in the DBA degree program take 3 credit hours of electives. Students choose one of the following courses:
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- Any existing concentration course from international business, management, or marketing (3)
- Any Advanced Research Course not included in the research foundation requirements (3)
Elective choices should be discussed with either the department chair or academic advisor to provide the greatest opportunity for the student to meet their personal career goals.
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Students are required to successfully complete a Doctoral Qualifying Examination (DQE) that focuses on the learner outcomes that are associated with the required core courses of their programs. Students must take the DQE the session after successfully completing all required core courses and must pass it within three sessions of successfully completing all required core courses.
Upon successful completion of the prerequisite coursework and the doctoral qualifying exam (DQE), students enroll in doctoral research courses. To progress through each doctoral research course, students must successfully complete specified course objectives. If all objectives of the course are successfully met, students will earn a PR grade, permitting them to enroll in the next doctoral research course as outlined in the course sequence of their program of study. If objectives of a doctoral research course are substantively but not fully met (67% completed) by the end of the course (as determined by the research mentors) students will earn a grade of Incomplete Progressing (IP) for the course and must complete an IP contract outlining a plan for completion of the remaining course objectives. Students must successfully complete all remaining course objectives by the due date specified in the IP contract before enrollment is permitted in the next doctoral research course. If little to no progress has been made in a doctoral research course (less than 67% of the course objectives were successfully completed) or the IP contract is not successfully fulfilled within the specified timeframe, students will earn a grade of No Credit (NC). Students who earn a grade of NC in a doctoral research course are required to retake the course. A student may only receive any combination of two NC, W, or WF grades in doctoral research courses. Upon receiving the third NC, W, or WF grade in a doctoral research course, the student will be dismissed from the program. Published course objectives for each doctoral research course apply unless the student and research mentors agree to and confirm in writing alternative specified objectives more appropriate for a particular doctoral research topic. Students must fulfill the prerequisites of each doctoral research course before enrollment is permitted.
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Doctoral Research Requirements - 12 Credit Hours
Business students
take a mix of classes in finance, management, and ethics.
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