European University

EUROPEAN UNIVERSITY – THE BUSINESS SCHOOL IN GENEVA, SWITZERLAND

The purpose of the Doctorate in Business Administration at European University is to educate managers, business leaders, executives, and scholar-practitioners who will:

• Contribute to a deeper understanding of business and management processes in an increasingly complex world through applied research, teaching, and scholarship.
• Improve their performance and the quality of their business decisions through reflective practice and lifelong learning.
• Help companies and organizations solve critical problems and foster an environment of performance excellence.
• Make a difference in the life of their organizations, professions, and the larger global community through service to social and professional organizations by conducting themselves in accordance with the highest ethical standards.

The program is built on an effective combination of courses, seminars, professional residencies, research papers, and a final dissertation. Working with faculty members who have extensive academic and practical experience, students gain a comprehensive understanding of critical foundation theories and the ability to immediately apply creative solutions to existing problems.

Who is the DBA for?

The DBA is designed for:

• MBA or Master’s degree holders and practitioners with five or more years of post graduate work experience
• Entrepreneurs and Senior Managers with alternative qualifications and successful careers
• Academics wishing to progress their careers with a doctoral thesis.

Program Duration and Content

EU’s DBA is a research based degree, which looks at solving practical business problems or issues. It is applied research as opposed to fundamental research. The DBA can be done over a period of up to five years. Exceptional students may complete the DBA in as little as two years.

The doctoral program consists of two parts:

• The pre-dissertation stage
• The dissertation stage:

The pre-dissertation stage takes a minimum of two years and students can start at the beginning of any term (October, January and March). The objective of the pre-dissertation stage is to provide the students with the theoretical foundations and practices of the primary and supporting fields of study, and with a command of relevant qualitative and quantitative methods of research and analysis. The study plan is a description of how the students’ educational interests and objectives will be pursued during enrollment in the doctorate program.

Each course takes two days and is given in a seminar form (2 x 9 hours). The study plan is unique in that it places emphasis on the students’ educational activities in relation to longer-range personal and career goals. It tailors the doctoral activities to students’ interests as well as faculty requirements. Students are urged to be imaginative and innovative in their studies and not to confine planned activities to the classroom. Independent research, publication, consulting, travel and teaching are but a few of the different activities that, if properly developed and presented, may be approved by the Doctoral Studies Committee.

The students have to take the classes listed below:

Teaching methods may include videos, case studies, literature reviews, etc., all to be employed to establish a firm link between traditional management approaches and the most recent operational developments. At the end of each of the following seminars the students will be required to hand in a research paper (or other similar assignments required by the instructor) in order to assess their participation and to evaluate their academic progress.

• Management
• Finance
• Economics
• Marketing Strategy
• Advanced Accounting
• Human Resources Management
• Change Management
• Managing New Product Development
• Competitions and Markets

The Dissertation Stage:

The objective of the dissertation stage is for the students to apply the theoretical and practical knowledge and analytic methods to the resolution of research program. It is also designed to demonstrate that the students have synthesized the knowledge gained during the pre-dissertation stage and are able to apply this knowledge to the resolution of a substantial problem. The dissertation stage consists of the following:

• Two dissertation seminars
• Development and defense of proposal
• Research execution
• The final dissertation approval

The candidates are required to attend a final oral presentation and defense of the dissertation. The jury consists of external examiners, which are both experts in the field and senior academics.
 
 Application for admission: