The University of South Florida College of Business is adding to its Masters in Business Administration (MBA) and Executive MBA programs with a degree that focuses on a combination of researching business practices and putting them into use - the Doctor of Business Administration (DBA).
While DBA degrees are popular in Europe, they are gaining traction in the United States. Speaking to WUSF's University Beat, program director Grandon Gill said it's actually a return to the way things once were.
"It (the DBA) was the original degree for business professors - before (they) started getting PhDs, they got DBAs. But it's a multi-disciplinary degree that tends to span across all the functions instead of being highly specialized," Gill said.
"Business academia has become highly specialized with its PhDs, but as a result, it's often become divorced from practice," he added. "What the DBA degree is (is) an attempt to bring practice back into business research, and what we're trying to do with this degree is create individuals who can span the vast gap between what goes on in actual businesses and what goes on in business academic research, because that gap has become huge."
The USF DBA program targets working executives with at least 12 years of business experience, including five at the senior management level. The cohort program runs for three years and while classes only meet one weekend a month from August through December and February through June, participants will do a bulk of their work online and through interaction with classmates.
The deadline for applications is November 1st. For more information, contact Grandon Gill at 813-974-6755.
