DBA vs PhD - Differences

finisklin

Hi folks,

hope so one can help on this.....what is the difference between Doctor in Business Administration and doing a PhD in your chosen business field? The link below indicates that there is no difference between a PhD in Business Administration and a DBA

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doctor_of_Business_Administration

I think the DBA is more prevalent in the UK than in Ireland, I don't know of any college that provides it here bar UCC which focuses on economics, which is not where my interests lie.

If anyone has been down this route would be glad of their experience....BTW I am in the private sector.

Rosen

In countries other than Ireland, DBA is usually the one executives plumb for and is usually done part-time. PhD is more academic and usually full-time. Ireland's universities seems to only focus on PhD's but most require an MA, MLitt, MSc etc first. With a DBA, you don't need an MBA first, it can be done with an undergrad and experience as far as I know. Clear as mud!

Im curious why you mentioned you were in the private sector? What's the relevance? So we know you are not unclean?

Black Swan

The DBA is a professional/practitioners degree a step above the MBA, whereas the PhD is more of a scholarly, theoretical/research degree. Most universities prefer their faculty to have PhDs.