Doctorate
New

Professional Doctorate in Business Administration (DBA) – American University of Malta

The American University of Malta's DBA (Doctor of Business Administration) program is one of the most accredited professional doctoral programs in Europe and the world. It is offered exclusively to holders of the Qualifi Level 8 Diploma in Strategic Management and Leadership, enabling students to complete their doctorate in just two years. This program is specifically designed for executives and senior professionals seeking to enhance their research and leadership capabilities and achieve a qualitative shift in their professional and administrative careers.

Duration2 Years

Upcoming rounds

Each round runs as live sessions with its instructor; every session is recorded for the round.

No round is open for registration right now. Interest can be registered, and the team will tell you when the next one opens.

It includes 8 powerful and in-depth academic modules covering:

Unit 800

Leadership Qualities and Practice

Your Focus: Bridging the critical gap between management and leadership at the strategic level.
You Will Master: The art of critically analysing the roles of managers as leaders and leaders as managers. You'll evaluate different leadership styles (transformational, transactional, situational) and their direct impact on organisational strategy. This module empowers you to create a vision, mission, and values that energise your organisation and foster a culture of empowerment and ethical practice.
Key Takeaway: Move from managing processes to inspiring people and shaping organisational destiny.

Unit 701

Research Methods

Your Focus: Building a robust foundation for evidence-based decision-making.
You Will Master: The principles of both quantitative and qualitative research, from defining critical research questions to designing methodologies, conducting literature reviews, and analysing data. This unit equips you with the tools to investigate business issues deeply, interpret complex information, and produce high-integrity research reports that inform strategy and mitigate risk.
Key Takeaway: Replace guesswork with data-driven intelligence and become a more effective strategic thinker.

Unit 801

Personal Leadership Development as a Strategic Manager

Your Focus: A rigorous self-assessment and blueprint for your own executive growth.
You Will Master: The ability to conduct a critical gap analysis on your own strategic skills against organisational ambitions. You will design, implement, and evaluate a detailed personal leadership development plan. This is not theoretical; it’s a practical process for closing the gap between where you are and the strategic leader you need to become to drive international success.
Key Takeaway: Turn introspection into actionable strategy for your most important asset: yourself.

Unit 802

Strategy Development in Cross Border and Global Organisations

Your Focus: Navigating the immense complexities of formulating strategy across political, cultural, and social divides.
You Will Master: The processes for developing collective strategy amidst diverse stakeholders. You'll learn to analyse the powerful influences of global politics, public interest, media, and cultural/religious factors on strategy. This module is crucial for leaders who must resolve cultural tensions and leverage strategic intelligence to build coherent, collaborative international strategies.
Key Takeaway: Forge unified strategies from diversity and turn global complexity into your competitive advantage.

Unit 803

Strategic Planning for Cross Border and Global Organisations

Your Focus: Moving from strategy formulation to effective, risk-aware implementation.
You Will Master: How to analyse the constraints and power dynamics inherent in inter-organisational planning. You will critically evaluate different strategic planning theories and, most importantly, learn to manage risk and opportunity within your plans. A core component is mastering strategic intelligence—how to gather, coordinate, and use it to make high-confidence decisions in an uncertain global environment.
Key Takeaway: Ensure your brilliant strategies are executable, resilient, and informed by superior intelligence.

Unit 804

Strategic Direction in Cross Border and Global Organisations

Your Focus: Setting a powerful and coherent direction for global operations.
You Will Master: Evaluating the economic, political, and social factors that shape policy and strategy. You'll learn to model inter-organisational working that respects partner integrity while achieving coherent outputs. This unit pushes you to propose innovative funding solutions and use forecasting methodologies to anticipate future trends and their impact on long-term strategy.
Key Takeaway: Become the architect of your organisation’s future by setting a clear, adaptable, and well-funded strategic direction.

Unit 805

Strategic Communication

Your Focus: Harnessing the power of media and communication as a strategic tool.
You Will Master: Critically assessing the impact of domestic, national, and global media on your organisation’s reputation and strategy. You'll learn to evaluate the influence of pressure groups and media owners, and design innovative methods to use the 24/7 news cycle to your advantage, shaping stakeholder and public opinion proactively.
Key Takeaway: Transform communication from a PR function into a powerful strategic weapon for influencing your operating environment.

Unit 806

Culture and its Impact on Strategy

Your Focus: Understanding the profound and often invisible influence of culture on every strategic decision.
You Will Master: How to critique strategy through a cultural lens, evaluating the impact of religion, political structures, social customs, and ethnicity. This unit challenges you to move beyond Western-centric models, using political and ethnographic study to maximise organisational effectiveness across borders and build consensus in diverse decision-making environments.
Key Takeaway: Decode cultural complexity to build more inclusive, effective, and globally intelligent strategies.

Then 4 Modules with Malta University

Modules