I'm a Senior Manager of Accreditation at AACSB, which is an association of business schools. I’m involved in the higher education world within the niche of business education.

I've always had jobs in the higher education world, but never at a university. Higher education is an industry that's fascinating to me. I was always checking higher education news and then I thought okay, maybe I would like to go a step further and continue my education in that field.

I met a couple of people who have done the DBA programme at Bath and they were enthusiastic about it. There are not many other options out there in terms of doctoral programmes in this field.

I actually started a PhD at another university and then realised it was not the format I needed. I couldn't just dive right into thesis writing and research. I needed a better feel for what I wanted to study.

What I liked about the DBA format is that you can play around for two years with different topics and learn at the same time. Some topics you're not as interested in as others, but at least you get to know about them and you’re not stuck with something too niche too early.

When I started, it was during COVID and the first residential was hybrid. I was the only non-British student to come to campus and there were only four or five of us who could make it in person. Yet we managed to have a very solid connection.

I’m so grateful for the relationships that I still have with that group. They are people I wouldn’t have met otherwise. We’re in the same sector in higher education but in different areas. There were Deans of law schools, heads of IT departments, lawyers and people like me, in accreditation in the business school world. We all have very different profiles and the linking factor was the feeling we would have every day after the residential. We would get together to discuss not just what we talked about during the classes, but also how we see the topic in our own sphere.

We’ve continued doing that virtually as well. Before starting the DBA, the alumni told me that I was going to make friends for life. It was true and it’s such a great outcome.

One of the best moments I've had on the programme was when we did Research Rockets. This is where you present what you're going to write about for your thesis in 15 minutes. Everyone has very different topics and you see the passion people have. It’s cool because you get to know about things you've never heard of before and you realise it’s something you can investigate further yourself.

It’s fed into my work as a professional because I can zoom out from the industry I'm working in. I understand better what it is to manage a higher education institution and what the constraints are. Because of the DBA content, I understand the environment and ecosystem much better.

I’ve developed research methodology skills that I didn't have before. I've done undergraduate and master's degrees before, but not this level of research so this was a completely new world to me.

I'm much more confident about my place in academia and in my profession now. I feel confident about interacting with senior leaders in my field because I understand their challenges better.

When I tell someone like a Dean or a Vice Chancellor that I’m doing a doctoral programme, they interact with me differently because most of them have done one too. They're interested in my research and it creates a bond.

In the beginning, I had imposter syndrome, especially as a woman, one of the youngest in the cohort and one of the few non-native English speakers. I’d never done research at this level before and some people on the course already had a PhD. But it only took me a couple of publications and good assignments for me to realise hey, actually, I do belong here.

Before I started the DBA, I was thinking about what topic I wanted to do and I spoke to one of the course alumni. I was saying I find this topic nice, but there's also this one that could be interesting. And then he looked at me and said, nice or interesting is not good enough, you want something that grabs you.

He was right. It has to be something that will become your passion because you feel the world needs to know about it. If you're passionate about something, you're going to put more effort in and then the quality improves, and you can get work published.

I was encouraged by the academics to publish in a journal and now I have, I’ve got the bug to publish more. Once you see your work published, you're like, whoa, this is it now.

The beauty of the DBA compared to a PhD is that it has a practice focus. I realised that the academics get as much from us as we get from them. We bring the real-world side of the theories that they’re putting in front of us.

I went to the Academy of Management Conference for the first time last year and that connected me with a lot of people. I think in general, we’re scared of what we don't know, so I felt again like a big imposter. Like, who am I to go to an AOM conference? But I realised, people are approachable, research is approachable. I can relate to people in the industry and position myself in that field.

When I started the programme, I had no idea what I wanted to do after. It's different for everyone. The reasons why I started were intellectual curiosity and personal challenge.

I'm not entirely sure what I will do afterwards, but I’ve got some great contacts out of the DBA. I also very much like my current job and can see opportunities there too, which I wouldn’t have had if it weren’t for the DBA.