AACSB DBA - Is there an Inexpensive one?

Ladies and Gentlemen, Let me start by saying that this forum has been a great wealth of information; I commend all of you, specially Dr. Bear, for such an informative forum.
I have been researching to find an inexpensive AACSB accredited DBA program (around $25K) for quite a while now, but no luck. Here is a partial list of what I have found so far. I will be very thankful if you can kindly add to this list. I will be very honored if Dr. Bear would give some insight as well.

-Kennesaw Univ: 3 years, 72K.
-Aston: 4 years, approx $52K.
-Grenoble: 4 years, 30K euros which is approx $43K, graduation rate of 10-20% (quite low and scary).
-Univ of Florida: Yet to start, but already running in the range of $90K.
-Univ of Surrey: 4 years, 29K pounds which is approx $44K, graduation rate of 50-60% (which is decent).
-Cranfield Univ: 4 years, 80K.

 

Your best bet is to go with a DBA that is pursing AACSB accreditation and that has a good chance of getting it. The University of Southern Queensland is planning to get accreditation in 2011 according to the last newsletter they sent me. They seem to working to get enough PhD qualified faculty in order to qualify. The program is withing your budget (25K) and it takes about 5 years part time or 3 years full time to complete.

There are few others in that might be in the process of getting and still affordable. Once they get it, they will raise tuition fees as this seems to be the reason to get the accreditation on the first place.

 

The degree is only fully accredited after the first class of students graduates with the initial approval.

 

Manchester Business School - DBA

Manchester Business School Doctoral programme

http://www.mbs-worldwide.ac.uk/programmes/dba/default.asp

The total fees for the DBA programme commencing October 2009 are £35,000 split into the following payments:

Year 1 - £14,000 (2 installments: £7,000 due September 2009 + £7,000 due March 2010)
Year 2 - £7,000 due October 2010
Year 3 - £7,000 due October 2011
Year 4 - £7,000 due Octover 2012
Year 5 - No Fee

 

City University of Hong Kong offers a 4 year DBA for $53400. Their link is http://www.cb.cityu.edu.hk/dba/

 

The first and second co-hort were almost exclusively from New Orleans, and with Katrina hitting, many dropped out. Though it IS in fact a difficult program, I think the numbers are due to some of the Katrina victims.

 

Correct, if you start the degree in 2009 and takes 5 years to finish the degree, you should expect to graduate by 2014. If the schools expects to get accreditation by 2011, you should be able to get an accredited degree by 2014.

In addition, it is highly unlikely that someone will check when exactly your degree was granted and compare it with when the accreditation was achieved. Most places only check if the institution is either accredited or not. The AACSB web site only states if an institution is accredited or not but it does not state when the accreditation was achieved.

 

I think RFValve is right here, most schools do only check for accreditation, so you could take the chance and hope they do not check, but if they call AACSB, they will ask the program and AACSB in my experience will tell them by date.

 

My MBA is from a AACSB accredited school that just got accreditation about 10 years ago but my graduation date is before then. When I have applied to teach at AACSB schools, I was never given the challenge of "was your degree accredited before or after this date?". Canadian schools just started the accreditation process recently so it would be absurd to deny you jobs just because your school was just accredited recently. Schools that are bad are not very likely to get accreditation so the fact that a school got the accreditation is because the school had good quality to begin with.

 

Doesn't AACSB have a pre-accreditation candidacy status that applicant schools often occupy for several years?

Even if somebody graduates from a business school before it achieves AACSB accreditation, I don't expect that would be much of a problem if the school was a candidate at the time.

So if U. of Southern Queensland is anticipating receiving AACSB accreditation by 2011, it might be a good idea to inquire whether it's a candidate now.

This appears to be AACSB's current candidate list:

http://www.aacsb.edu/General/InstLists.asp?lid=8

I don't see USQ. So, while I have no doubt that USQ will qualify for AACSB accreditation down the line, I do wonder if their timetable might be a little ambitious.

Here's AACSB's business-accredited list:

http://www.aacsb.edu/General/InstLists.asp?lid=3

 

You are right, the 2011 is the estimated date to qualify for accreditation. I searched and found a copy of the newsletter mentioning this so here is the full version:

"The Faculty continues to aspire to increasing its percentage of Doctoral-qualified staff from around 35 percent in 2006/07 to 65 percent plus by 2011/12. This will be crucial to any realistic tilt at AACSB international accreditation in the next few years. Realistically, given
current financial exigencies, such an application would be unlikely in the current planning period, but may be a realistic aim for post-2013 which would mean serious planning for it would need to begin early in 2011."


So a realistic date is post 2013 for Accreditation. Still not bad for someone starting in 2009 as it takes 5 years to do the program and another 6 months to a year to satisfy degree requirements such as dissertation defense, corrections, printing so a realistic graduation date should be 2015 that could be enough time to achieve the accreditation.

 

Perhaps, but 10-20% is not unusual for a European doctoral program.

 

A good and affordable example is Strathclyde. They charge GBP17860 for their 4 year program. With the GBP/USD currency exchange rate constantly going down, thats a great buy at approx $26K.

 

Is Strathclyde pursuing AACSB?

 

Strathclyde is accredited.

http://www.gsb.strath.ac.uk/mba/accreditation/

A great find in my opinion for those serious about getting a solid doctorate.

 

Does anywhere it say Strathclyde offers Ph.D in Business Administration via distance learning?

 

Not sure about Strathclyde, but the term "external" is used quite extensively in the UK. The term "distance learning" is not really applicable in most cases, since no coursework is required for the PhD or DBA, assuming that one has an MSc or MPhil preparation.

 

Only the DBA is offered as an "open learning" program. Please notice that distance learning is normally not the term used by British and Australian schools and instead used terms as "external", "independent" or "open learning".


http://www.strath.ac.uk/mansci/prospectivestudents/researchdegrees/

 

What if I do not have a Masters degree but wanted a UK-based external PhD program, would they require that I take some classes or finish a Masters first?

 

This is generally the case. If you do not have a master's degree, they may admit you to an MPhil/MRes, and if you make satisfactory progress, transfer you over to the doctoral program after a year or two. It might take a year or two longer, but you will be awarded an MPhil/MRes and a DBA or PhD.