Mission

The Doctoral Education Resource Center is a comprehensive source for information tools, and discussion about doctoral education for management educators—faculty and program directors—in business schools.

Objectives

• Assist management educators to determine doctoral education program objectives
• Facilitate knowledge sharing and discussion about doctoral education in business schools
• Promote research and contributions in business doctoral education

Overview

Doctoral education is a challenge that many business schools take on for the perceived advantages of increased research, funding, prestige and the production of faculty and, industry leaders through intense education and training. In the decision-making process, schools have to determine whether they will use their resources to build and promote a doctoral education program or to keep their resources on the traditionally more prominent and lucrative MBA program.

Some of the issues facing doctoral education program directors in their policy decisions include:

• Faculty shortage – There is an ongoing shortage of PhD graduates to fill the teaching needs of business schools.

• Student Recruitment & Retention – Business school budgets and objectives lead to a delicate balance in trying to recruit new PhD students and offer classes and services to retain high quality students.

• Research – In an academic environment, the production of strong research that both advances the discipline and has practical applications for business professionals is necessary to cement the reputation of a good doctoral program.

• Funding – Business schools have a finite amount of funding to be distributed in their marketing, salaries and other expenses for the undergraduate, MBS and PhD programs. Often undergraduate and MBA programs offer schools a greater financial return on investment, making the marketing of doctoral education a challenge for educators.

• Prestige – The doctoral program can be the flagship for academic prestige, but may not have achieved the visibility to use that prestige as a tool for promoting doctoral education within your business school.

• Rankings – MBA programs are ranked by a number of news organizations, leading to prominent placement of these programs in the public eye. PhD programs are not commonly ranked in this way, reducing the press coverage and visibility of these important programs.

These and many other issues are gaining importance in business doctoral education today. AACSB International supports the efforts of the doctoral education community within business schools and will continue to offer information through publications, research and the doctoral education resource center.