The Lord Ashcroft International Business School DBA is a professional doctorate. As with DBAs at other British Universities, they offer a route to a doctorate degree, and thereby the title of 'Doctor', that is different from the traditional PhD. The DBA programme gives particular attention to the development of candidates in their respective areas of professional practice. The development of this range of transferable competencies, relevant for today's business world, is achieved through the vehicle of a practitioner centred research investigation. The DBA therefore places a high value on the transferability of research findings to and from the workplace. Thus, a key characteristic of this award is that it recognises the workplace as both the field for, and the beneficiary of, high quality research. Rather than add to their traditional workload, candidates should seek to integrate and diffuse their doctoral studies within their job. The aim is that your work becomes your research, and your research becomes your work. These beliefs guided the design and development of the Lord Ashcroft International Business School DBA.

Since all candidates on the programme are employed as full time managers or business leaders, their place of work is accepted as the arena in which they would normally undertake their research. The workplace of candidates should be seen as their laboratory for research and a unique fieldwork location for their various investigations.

However, candidates have to recognise the consequential research issues that follow from such a close relationship to 'their' field of investigation. Issues of reliability, rigour, validity, and demonstrating an appropriate balance between objectivity and subjectivity have particular significance for candidates as they undertake, and report on, their research.

The DBA offers an opportunity for managers, as learner/researchers, to study in the company of like-minded colleagues who share relatively common professional experiences. The DBA, as research degree, recognise the importance of management experience and postgraduate study as pre-requisites for entry. This combination gives a ready-made forum where the personal development of managers can evolve.

It is accepted, within the DBA, that the employer-employee relationship is the forum where research findings can be valued, and mutual expectations will exist regarding the achievement of organisational goals. The context has a central role in the development of the learner/researcher, since it provides the source of research and it is where the findings from that research are disseminated and implemented.

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