The Executive Doctorate of Business Administration at the Charles F. Dolan School of Business at Fairfield University in Fairfield, CT is low-residency. The program is three years. Synchronous classes have online meetings on weekend and each semester there are two in-person weekends, one at the start and one at the end of each semester. There are two semesters per year, fall and spring. Students complete one chapter of their dissertation during each course. It's a 48-credit program without specializations. Is this degree AACSB accredited? Sources differ at the time I'm writing this. The business school holds AACSB accreditation, but according to the AACSB's page for Fairfield that accreditation extends only to the undergraduate and master's level. According to the Fairfield catalog page for this program, this executive DBA is "accredited by AACSB." Perhaps AACSB accreditation is pending. Perhaps someone at the college wrote the claim above prematurely and it won't be accredited. Prospective students will want to confirm with AACSB if this accreditation is important to them. Tuition is $17,500 per semester x 2 semesters per year x 3 years = $105,000. Program Overview page
Perhaps they are being deceptive. The fact that their school of business is AACSB accredited doesn't make all the programs accredited. I've seen schools use phrasing such as "offered by the AASCB-accredited John Q. Public School of Business," even for programs that don't fall within the scope of AASCB accreditation. A perfect example would be WCUPA's DPA and MPA programs. Yes, their College of Business and Public Management has AASCB accreditation, but it doesn't extend to their public admin programs. Another thing colleges like to do, which CACREP strongly rebuke, is using wordings such as, "the curriculum is aligned to meet CACREP standards." It's either the program is accredited or not. Anything else is irrelevant and misleading.
In context, that could be misleading, but I think in some contexts that information could be useful. Notably, if I'm a prospective counseling student and I plan to apply for a counseling license with a state board that doesn't require CACREP accreditation but does look at alignment with CACREP standards, that information would be useful to me. (Why wouldn't I just go to a CACREP program with so many CACREP programs available? Good question, but suppose there's something compelling otherwise about this school.)
I am also a prospective counseling student. I understand how this can be helpful for the student. I tend to just look at the state's required courses and compare them to the school's curriculum. I also have an interest in practicing in a state without a CACREP requirement. But I would prefer a CACREP-accredited degree to be safe. However, I am putting that counselor's ambition on hold. In a few years, I will circle back to it!
There was a time when AACSB accreditation did not extend to doctoral programs at all. Yet, everyone knew if you wanted to teach in an AACSB-accredited B-school, having your doctorate come from an AACSB-accredited B-school was essential.
Yes, but AACSB PhDs are almost all taught on-campus without online or low-res options. UNC Greensboro is a rare exception.
A reminder that it's not just the degree you earn, but HOW you earn it that will matter when pursuing an academic career. YMMV.
I don't think rare will be the case in a few years. Soon campus programs will be limited to only certain disciplines.
KSU transformed its long AACSB accredited DBA into Ph.D. in Business Administration. URL: https://www.kennesaw.edu/coles/degrees-programs/graduate/phd-business-administration/index.php
The University of Scranton did the same. They now have a Ph.D. in Accounting. IIRC, the program director at Scranton graduated from Kennesaw's DBA..
