Business executives seeking to bolster their analytical and research skills, better leverage big data, or pivot into a career in academia without leaving their day jobs will soon have the opportunity, thanks to a new doctoral program offered at the Prairie View A&M University (PVAMU) College of Business (COB).

The Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board (THECB) recently approved PVAMU’s plans to launch a Doctor of Business Administration (DBA) degree program this fall. Final authorization from the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools Commission on Colleges (SACSCOC) sealed the deal, allowing potential students with significant professional and management experience to continue their employment while pursuing the three-year, weekend-based program.

“This is a true milestone for the College,” said COB Dean of 19 years, Munir Quddus, Ph.D. “PVAMU will be the first public university in Texas accredited with AACSB [Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business] International, the gold standard for business school accreditations, to offer this degree. Among Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs), this will be the first and only DBA program.”

Based at PVAMU’s Northwest Houston Center, the DBA program will provide a high-quality educational opportunity to interested and qualified professionals among the nearly 20 million residents living in the Texas Triangle — Houston and the Dallas-Fort Worth metropolitan areas — which is home to more than 40 Fortune 500 corporate headquarters.

“The program is important because it serves our mission as a land-grant institution – we are enhancing the labor force with this degree,” said Dean Quddus. “The mission of the College of Business is to be known nationally as an institution that empowers students to reach their full potential. The new DBA will help us reach both of these mission-driven goals.”

The program includes 60 semester credit hours, with students completing 42 hours in the first two years and 18 credit hours of dissertation coursework in the third year. In-person classroom meetings will be held once a month, over a weekend at the Northwest Houston Center. Professors will deliver online content in between the face-to-face class meetings.

“The program will be offered in executive mode to allow full-time professionals to upgrade their skills and gain scholarly knowledge to become better business leaders,” Dean Quddus said. “Since classes will be offered in web-enhanced mode, business executives from across the country can take advantage of the program by flying to Houston for the once-a-month, in-person weekend classes.”

Program admission requirements include:

*a master’s degree from an accredited university with a 3.0 GPA or higher;

*seven or more years of professional or managerial experience that require high levels of responsibility; and

*a good command of verbal and written English.

“Currently, there is a gap between academic research and problems faced by business and industry,” Dean Quddus said. “Thus, academic business research outcomes may not provide adequate solutions for the problems facing professionals. The DBA program’s success will lead to an enhanced level of collaboration in data-driven research between academe and industry.”

The DBA program includes several research-intensive courses, including Foundations of Applied Research Prospectus and Design of Applied Research Proposal. In these courses, students will develop research proposals using data to solve real-world business problems they may face in their day jobs. The discipline-specific courses would allow students to apply their research skills to specialize in an area of interest, including energy, healthcare, finance and accounting, and big data analytics.

“Adding the sixth doctoral program at PVAMU will greatly enhance the reputation of the COB and help us engage with the Houston business community,” Dean Quddus said. “Our faculty are keenly looking forward to strengthening their own applied research skills to teach scholarly executives, who, upon graduation, will become intellectually curious leaders in business and academia.”

To learn more about PVAMU’s new DBA program, visit www.pvamu.edu/business/departments/graduate/dba.