DBA Vs Ph.D. in Business Administration

The world is progressing and fast-changing as employers are quick to react and respond to hasten decisions that lean on growth, stability, and a sustainable future under a proposed mixed prophecy of V-shaped economic curve predicted by leading Global Financial and Economic Body of experts.

This obviously has pushed the case for pursuing a DBA (Doctorate in Business Administration) Program, amidst an uncertain, volatile, and cautiously optimistic macro-environment. Perhaps the organizational priorities and ambitions are clearly weighing heavily in redesigning & repositioning ‘on-the-job’ competencies across all parts of the industry, as governments, economies are busy revamping traditional educational systems and approaches.

Not to he left behind are employers who are constantly orienting renewed professional expectations for its future leadership think tank teams, considering compelling competencies that shall shape a space for embracing specialized deep thinking knowledge/ skills, promote scientific endeavor, add to action-oriented decisions, given the mix of academic rigor and an unending cycle of business expectations from a wide range of internal and external stakeholders.

Now consider these facts,

The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia’s initiative of modernizing its education system as part of its Vision 2030 Program involves the urgent requirement to reskill the current and next generation of the Saudi population. The major drivers contributing to revamping Saudi Arabia’s economic transformation shall ensure that Saudi youth are “equipped to handle jobs of the future” in a knowledge-based economy, given that the Saudi crude oil reserves are a finite commodity estimated to last at best 90 years.

As KSA now urgently seeks to diversify its oil-dependent economy by adopting global living standards, let’s review global student mobility and scholarship funding data.

• Data &Trend on Student Mobility Ratio: Saudi Arabia is among the top 10 biggest nations, where resident students travel worldwide to acquire international degrees. UNESCO Statistics maintain that 5 percent of all Saudi tertiary students were studying abroad in 2019/18—a high outbound student mobility ratio by global standards sustained by extensive government funding.
• In 2005, Saudi Arabia, launched what is known as one of the largest scholarship programs ever initiated by a government, the massive multi-billion dollar King Abdullah Scholarship Program (KASP), which allowed more than 200,000 Saudi citizens to earn degrees in more than 30 countries during the first decade of its existence alone.
• According to the Open Doors data of the Institute of International Education (IIE), around 51 percent of Saudi students in the U.S. are enrolled in undergraduate programs, 15 percent study in master’s programs, and 12 percent are in Ph.D. programs. Engineering is the most popular field of study, accounting for 30 %of Saudi enrollments in 2018/19, followed by business (19 percent).
• Importance: Four out of five program managers see the demand for professional doctorates or DBA in management in roles of Leadership, Consulting, Academia-led professions in the next 3 to 5 years.
• Student characteristics: As a rule, students must carry10-15 years of professional experience and should ideally represent 35-40 years of age; Statistics indicate two out of three are male; they come from all sorts of industries – for instance, from financial service industries, consulting firms, or IT and telecommunication, aviation, retail, healthcare, Fintech, logistics & distribution, FMCG industries – or run their own businesses or a serving in Semi-Government, Government Bodies. On average, a third of the students are international students, and most of the students are working full-time, primarily in senior and middle management positions.

So, the question to consider is

• Who am I – Senior Management Employee / Mid- Senior Management Employee.
• Where do I see myself 2 years from here on- Leader/ Decision Maker / Member of the Board.
• How do I achieve it – Purely by Experience and Perception or attaining a DBA Program?
• Future Ambition – Progress to Consulting, Join Academia, Transform into an Award-Winning Author.
• Am I aware of the Kingdom’s Vision 2030 Human Capital Development Vision Realization Program (check the Educational System Hierarchy placed below).

So, if you are serving in a Private/ Publicly listed organization and/or in a Transnational Corporation that has its deep-rooted operations in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia or in the Government of KSA perhaps this update from the recently held G20 Summit would be reflective thought on why the timing is absolutely appropriate to enroll for a DBA Program.

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