Business Administration

doctor of Business Administration

NEW Online Format starting Fall 2013

Wilmington University is committed to helping students achieve their educational goals by providing high quality programs, affordable tuition, and formats that fit busy lifestyles. Recently the Doctor of Business Administration (DBA) program added an alternate Saturday hybrid format to complement its weekday evening hybrid offering. (Hybrid format includes a mixture of face-to-face and online learning in each course.) Further adding to student choices, Wilmington University will add fully online DBA courses in September 2013. The online program will be identical to the hybrid program with respect to courses, expectations, tuition, and instructors. If a student prefers taking some classes face-to-face and others online, this will be possible provided there are available seats in the course.

The essence of Wilmington University’s DBA program is fostering a highly participative learning community. Peer interaction and support are key elements of the learning and discovery process. Accordingly, many of the online courses will utilize interactive webinars or similar communication tools. These virtual meetings will be scheduled as needed by course requirements at times most appropriate for the instructor and students in the course. The webinars will include short lectures, discussions, debates, and student presentations. All online students are expected to participate actively in these webinars. In addition to the webinars, various online learning experiences will be used, including discussion boards and videos.

Classes will run for 14 week semesters, and the typical load will be two classes per semester. Including spring, summer, and fall semesters, a student taking two courses per semesters would complete six classes per year. Initially there will only be two online courses offered per semester, so that online students wishing to take more than two courses per semester would need to supplement the online courses with hybrid courses. As the online program grows, more than two online courses will be offered each semester. It will be possible to complete the entire degree online.

The DBA program includes 15 content courses (including two electives) and three dissertation courses. In keeping with the scholar-practitioner goals of the program, dissertations encompass high quality research providing insight on issues that are important to the students’ employers, profession, industry, or community. The goal is to complete the dissertation within one year after completion of the content courses.

One residency is required for online DBA students. This residency will take place toward the end of the content courses and will be scheduled to follow the completion of RES 7111, Research Design. It is anticipated that the residency will be four days in length, and it will consist of workshops and consultation with faculty members designed to develop a solid plan for the student’s dissertation process.

Click here to obtain general information about required and elective courses and the application procedure.

For more specific information about the online or traditional Doctor of Business Administration program, contact the University Information Center at (302) 356-INFO (4636).