Latest DBA News:
Dr Gillian Thomson was awarded the Richard & Shirley Mawditt
prize for outstanding DBA thesis
Structure and content
The DBA (HEM) has an annual intake every May. The programme is structured in two phases:
Phase 1
Phase 2
Phase 1
Phase 1 is delivered in 3 two-week and 2 one-week residential blocks at the University of Bath. Accommodation is provided.
Unit 1: Strategic Organisational Change in Higher Education
This unit enables participants to:
- understand, evaluate and contribute to the key ideas and literature in the field of organisational change in HE;
- make appropriate judgements regarding which practical approaches and theoretical resources are relevant to their own contexts;
- adopt a reflective practitioner approach to their professional activities;
- comprehend, conceive, plan, conduct and justify particular change initiatives in their own areas of responsibility;
- contribute collaboratively to educational change management projects and programmes, both by providing appropriate expertise themselves, and responding appropriately to the expertise of others.
This unit includes the following themes, some of which will be individual sessions while others are likely to be themes combined in one session or appearing across more than one session:
- Overview of Organisational Conditions in Higher Education Pertinent to Change Processes
- Creating the Context for Change and Transformation
- Developing Change Strategies
- Operational Strategies
- Evaluating Change
- Reflective Practice
Unit 2: Strategic Issues in Higher Education Development and Management
This unit enables participants to:
- demonstrate an advanced understanding of the nature and dynamics of a series of macro policy developments in areas affecting the evolution of higher education;
- identify the precise ramifications of the challenges for higher education organisations in general;
- undertake a critical analysis of the literature and knowledge base for those selected areas;
- identify gaps in the knowledge base and make a contribution to selected areas;
- demonstrate a detailed understanding of the significance of the above for particular contexts.
This is a double unit and includes the following themes, some of which will be individual sessions while others are likely to be themes combined in one session or appearing across more than one session:
- Higher Education and Globalisation
- Internationalism and Borderless Higher Education
- Contemporary Approaches to Funding and Managing Universities
- Evolution of Teaching and Learning
- Research and Knowledge Advancement
- Funding of Higher Education
- Entrepreneurialism in Higher Education
- Accountability and Autonomy
- Quality Assurance and Enhancement
- HE and Development
Unit 3: Research Methods
This unit will enable participants to:
- demonstrate an understanding of different approaches to research on higher education systems and in higher education institutions;
- develop informed judgements about their strengths and weaknesses and the purposes to which they are most suited;
- work from different perspectives on the research process - as critical readers and commissioners of research as well as researchers;
- develop a research outline, design, methodology and methods.
This unit includes the following themes:
- The relationship between theory, research, methodology and methods.
- Developing understandings of quantitative and qualitative research methodologies.
- Developing understandings of ‘relevant’ applied educational research methods.
- The contexts and conditions of successful and worthwhile research in higher education institutions.
