September 6, 2002—A Doctorate of Business Administration (DBA) in Facilities and Property Management has been launched by the Facilities Management Graduate Centre at Sheffield Hallam University in England.
The new DBA brings together FMGCs commitments to be an innovator in education and to promote research that is relevant to business, in a four-year program. FMGC already offers work-based MBA and Certificate program.
FMGC says the award is equivalent to, but more structured than, a traditional PhD. The objective is to generate an original contribution to business and professional knowledge. Research projects can be more directly geared to the needs of a sponsoring employer, and both sponsor and student benefit from peer and academic research unobtainable in the open market.
Professor If Price, program leader, said: “We know that research into the organizational impact of facilities and property is needed, at scales from urban developments to the individual building. We also know there are a number of individuals in work who aspire to continue beyond the Masters degree, to the highest award in the university system. Several are enrolled on PhDs.
“However, the requirements of the PhD focus more on purely academic research, and for students working full time, it can be a long and lonely process. The newer DBA awards, first started in leading business schools, demand that candidates deliver the same high level contribution to knowledge, defended in a doctoral thesis, while focusing on business or professional knowledge.”
FMGC says it already has confirmed applications from students whose sponsors have agreed the business case for their participation.
FMGC is developing opportunities for an international perspective for the DBA program, with the possibility of exchange with an equivalent program offered by the Faculty of Design, Architecture and Building from Sydneys University of Technology.
—Richard Byatt
Reprinted with permission; copyright 2002 i-FM
