New Doctoral Program in Management offered in Geneva
Webster University of Geneva has partnered with the Grenoble School of Management to offer a Doctorate in Management – a unique curriculum available in Switzerland.
Only two years ago Webster launched its Doctorate of Business Administration (the ‘DBA’) – a management doctorate administered by the American University in concert with the French Ecole de Management at Grenoble.
The management school at Grenoble is regularly ranked in the top management schools.
Currently there are about 20 students enrolled in the program from Geneva. They come from diverse backgrounds (South America, Middle East, and Europe) and have professional backgrounds ranging from marketing to technology or engineering. Their common trait is that they all occupy management or executive roles in their company or organization (Exxon, Caterpillar, Philips, ITU, …)
The courses are given in English and the student chooses with his company the subject of his thesis work. The doctoral thesis must treat a complex organizational problem which the student’s company has already had to confront or believes it may at some point confront. The student has to develop innovative strategies to deal with the selected problem.
The DBA curriculum addresses itself to executives who wish to prepare themselves for the next step in their careers, either in consulting or teaching at business schools or universities.
They have a strong interest in preparing themselves for a next career step because the curriculum costs 24,000 euros/per year (the third year is only 10,000 euros; and the fourth 3,000). The curriculum is supposed to last 4 years with the second half of the curriculum composed of
The schools point out that more and more top executives are interested in going into consulting or teaching and that the number of MBA students keeps rising.
Normally, corporations sponsor employees for the program, paying the fees and hoping to recuperate a more capable and valuable employee at the end of the program. In the case of the Webster/Grenoble DBA the companies also obtain the results of the thesis, which can conceivably have some ‘consultancy’ value.
The next entry class is in November 2009. Information on the program is at Webster-grenoble.ch
