Does an online DBA enable graduates to teach at universities?
August 26, 2010 by admin
Filed under Career Planning
Educational institutions are accredited, not degrees. Also, each educational institution will have their own criteria on which they base the hiring of faculty on. If you want to teach at a traditional university, you should obtain the highest quality education you can get. AACSB-accredited universities for example will have higher standards when hiring faculty.
At most schools I know of, the term DBA refers to an advanced professional program designed for people who want to remain in industry, not become professors. Conversely, PhD in Business refers to a program that is designed to prepare students to become professors, though of course some of their graduates instead go back into industry. It is heavily theoretical and includes a research thesis; if your goal is to become a professor, that is the degree you should take. However, not all universities use those 2 terms the same way, so you’ll need to look at the programs to check their intent.
The second part of my answer is to distinguish between what is minimal and what is preferable (i.e. competitive) in the academic job market. Most university business schools will likely prefer a PhD over a DBA, an on-campus program over an online program, an AACSB accredited school (see link below) over one without such accreditation, and a prestigious university known for its research over one that is neither. Again however, some universities might have other priorities.
In the long run, what is important is that as a professor you do good research and teach well. But those 2 skills are difficult to evaluate directly in the short run, i.e. at hiring time.
Source: linkedin