Doctor of Business Administration

Description and Outcomes

The Doctor of Business Administration (DBA) is an advanced business degree for experienced professionals. You will learn to research business problems and generate novel solutions. The DBA program is ideal for higher-level managers who wish to further their business education but are not interested in a research-oriented PhD program. For a flexible experience, you will pick your preferred focus areas for a doctoral project and can customize your learning experience through concentration courses.

Concentrations

You can personalize your degree by focusing electives on a particular concentration in line with your career interests. You may either select a concentration or design a custom option to fulfill your elective requirements.

Program Length

The Doctor of Business Administration program consists of a minimum of 90 quarter credit hours. Upon successful completion of the program, you will be awarded a doctorate degree.

Program Outcomes

  1. Discovery of Knowledge: Research and evaluate the current state of the art for business problem solutions.
  2. Applied solution generation: Integrate and apply knowledge from various disciplines to generate practical and socially responsible solutions to business problems.
  3. Communication: Communicate effectively to a variety of audiences on issues and solutions.

Professional Competencies

In addition to the discipline-specific outcomes, professional competencies are integrated throughout your academic program. You can review the professional competencies associated with your academic program in the Professional Competencies section of this Catalog.

Program Availability

For program availability, please refer to the U.S. State and Other Approvals section and Program Availability Information.

Policies

Admissions Requirements

You must meet the below admissions requirements in addition to Purdue Global's general requirements.

You must complete the following at least 4 weeks prior to the desired start date:

  1. Submit a transcript indicating completion of a master’s degree in business or a related field with a cumulative GPA of 3.25 or higher from an accredited institution. 
  2. Submit a current, professional resume or curriculum vitae (CV). 
  3. Submit a writing sample. 
  4. If requested by the School, successfully complete an interview with a program representative.

If you wish to reenter the program after being withdrawn, you must wait 6 months to reapply and obtain approval from the Office of the Dean.

Progression Requirements

  1. Credits awarded in any combination of prior learning may not exceed 32 credit hours. You may not receive transfer credit for any 700- or 800-level course.​
  2. You must secure permission to conduct your applied research project at your chosen research site. If you are unable to secure site permission within the designated time frame, you may be withdrawn from the program.
  3. You must successfully complete the required Institutional Review Board (IRB) training and obtain Purdue Global IRB approval prior to starting data collection for your doctoral project.
  4. You may take no more than 10 credits per term for courses prior to the doctoral project courses. Each doctoral project course may not be registered with any other courses in the same term.
  5.  You may have no pending incompletes and must have successfully completed all 700-level courses prior to starting the 800-level courses. Once you begin the 800-level courses, the School will verify your eligibility and progress each term and register you appropriately.
  6. During your 800-level courses, if you are unable to complete the course objectives within the standard course timeline or require revisions to your doctoral project before advancing to the next course, you will be registered in a corresponding non-credit extension course.
    1. Extension courses provide you with one additional term to complete the objectives of the applied research topics or doctoral project course before advancing to the next course and stage of the process or completion of the program. 
    2. You may have up to two extensions per course but may not exceed five extensions total in the program.
    3. If you are unable to complete the designated research, project, and paper components of the course by the end of the extension, you may be withdrawn from the program.
    4. You will be required to pay the normal resource fee and a course fee for each registered extension.
  7. ​You must receive approval and signoff on the topic for your applied research project paper to complete GB890 Doctoral Project I: Problem Statement and Background Research and on your final applied research project paper to complete GB893 Doctoral Project IV: Project Dissemination. If you are unable to do so by the end of the term, you will be enrolled in an extension course to continue working to complete the course objectives.

Graduation Requirements

In addition to meeting Purdue Global’s general graduation requirements, you must have completed the doctoral degree program no later than 5 years after completing the first class. 

Certification, State Board, and National Board Exams

Certification and licensure boards have state-specific educational requirements for programs that lead to a license or certification that is a precondition for employment. Prospective and current students must review Purdue Global’s State Licensure and Certifications site to view program and state-specific licensure information.

Licensure-track programs may limit enrollment to students in certain states; please see Purdue Global’s Program Availability Information to determine enrollment eligibility.

You are responsible for understanding the requirements of optional certification exams. Such requirements may change during the course of your program. You are not automatically certified in any way upon program completion. Although certain programs are designed to prepare you to take various optional certification exams, Purdue Global cannot guarantee you will be eligible to take these exams or become certified. Your eligibility may depend on your work experience, completion of education and/or degree requirements, not having a criminal record, and meeting other certification requirements.