About the Doctorate of Business Administration (DBA)
Become a true leader and innovator in the business world with National Louis University’s Doctorate of Business Administration (DBA) degree program.
This program is for business and academic professionals who want to build upon master’s-level competencies, skills, and knowledge. Throughout the program, you'll master leadership, strategic thinking, decision-making, and research skills to become a leader in your field. You'll apply what you learn in the classroom to a real-world scenario through a required business practicum and build a professional network of business experts and fellow students from around the world.
The program's convenient blended format, combining online coursework with one on-campus immersion* per term, allows you to earn your DBA from anywhere in the world. You can also choose to add a management concentration option to your degree.
The DBA program requires prior completion of a master's degree in business administration or a business-related field. Students attending full-time can complete the DBA program in four years. Read the DBA program's admissions criteria prior to applying.
*This program is offered in our Low Residency format.
The National Louis University Low Residency approach provides learners in select programs with the convenience of online learning and the opportunity to meet occasionally with their classmates and professors, as well as with community members to engage in networking, team building, and high-impact instruction. Low Residency programs are essentially fully online programs paired with integral, intentional, and structured in-person learning events (residencies).
Those residencies are used to help learners build their professional identities, expand their networks, and to engage in peer-based learning in flexible and creative ways, all built around their online course offering. Programs offered in this unique format are designed for working professionals and/or those learners whose schedules might not permit them the option of meeting face-to-face for the entire program and/or those that value the flexibility of online courses, but also place importance on in-person learning.
Residency frequency and location vary by program, please click the curriculum link below for details.
Program Highlights
Blended On-Campus Experience
Earn your degree from anywhere in the world with the program’s flexible blended format, which combines online courses with one on-campus experience per semester. The on-campus experience is three days in length, consisting of workshops, course orientations, course assignments and consultation with faculty members.
Job-Focused Practicum
Connect what you learn in the classroom to the workplace through the program’s required practicum. You will learn, assess and be able to apply content and business competencies learned in various courses directly to your current employment.
Professional Networking
Develop a collaborative and supportive network with a group of peers from across the globe and form connections that will last years beyond graduation.
What You'll Learn
The curriculum is designed to prepare you to perform more effectively in existing professional roles, qualify for roles with increasing responsibility, start your own business, or develop capabilities for a second career in consulting or teaching at the college level. Below are the skills you will develop upon program completion.
Strategic Thinking: Evaluate business issues and trends brought forth by economic globalization, to generate strategies that sustain long-term business success.
Divergent Thinking: Analyze and prioritize the needs of diverse stakeholders in business situations to recommend innovative, feasible, ethical, and legal actions.
Professional Communication & Application: Synthesize, apply and communicate in a professional manner complex information that is concise, clear, organized and well supported, appropriate to each business situation.
Informed Decision-Making: Evaluate and apply relevant academic and professional literature to make evidence- based decisions in cross-cultural business environments.
Research Design: Conduct and justify applied research in the area of specialization to foster positive change in organizations and communities.
Program Structure
The DBA degree program is 60 credit hours in length.
• One concentration option is offered:
• Management: Evaluate management research and current practices to develop employees and systems that sustain competitive and responsible organizations in changing environments.
• The curriculum is comprised of 21 SH of Core Courses, 15 SH of Research Courses, 12 SH of Concentration Courses and 12 SH of Dissertation Courses.
• You'll take two eight-week classes per 16-week term.
• One campus immersion (three days in length) per term is required.
• The degree takes four years to complete with full-time enrollment.
Career Outlook
Graduates with a Doctor of Business Administration open the door to a variety of executive-level roles in large businesses and organizations, opportunities to start their own business or start-up, as well as faculty and administrative positions within universities. Postsecondary teaching positions in business are expected to increase 12% from 2019-2029,* much faster than average, while median pay for chief executives was $185,950 in 2020.**
* https://www.bls.gov/ooh/education-training-and-library/postsecondary-teachers.htm#tab-6
