Final (Big) Defense of the DBA Dissertation

The student’s obligation at the end of the third year is to successfully complete the DBA defense of the final doctoral thesis in front of a Committee.

  • The student prepares a presentation (15 – 20 minutes); a discussion and evaluation follow.

The final DBA thesis has a range of 90-120 standard pages (not including appendices). It shall include descriptive statistics as well as basic mathematical statistics (eg. regression analysis – in case of quantitative research).  In case of qualitative research, it is necessary to state the sources of data collectionthe method of their operationalization and processing, including the design of a local theory or propositions. It is based on empirical research; therefore, it has to state what methodology was applied, what the results are, as well as a description of how the results were obtained.

Further details: The Dissertation is to be printed on both sides. Recommended margins are 2.5 cm. A line spacing of 1.15 using a 12-pt. proportional serif font is recommended. The fonts of paragraph and chapter titles are proportionally larger.

Final Defense
Before the planned date of the DBA defense of the final doctoral thesis, the student must have fulfilled other obligations of the student, incl. achieving 70 points in the required structure. Furthermore, the final doctoral thesis and the following documents must be submitted to the DBA Support Center at least 8 weeks in advance:

  • Two printed copies of the dissertation in hardcover, double-sided printing + send the dissertation in electronic form to the DBA Support Center,
  • Protocol signed by the supervisor on the result of the dissertation check in the Validator program (provided by the supervisor)
  • Confirmation from the DBA Support Center about the fulfilment of all study obligations (provided by the DBA Center)
  • List of publishing activities (signed by the supervisor as well as the student) exported from the PCVSE database

Committee
For each committee, four members are appointed. Minimum number of committee members from FBA is two (chairman plus one). At least one committee member is external (if the DBA program is carried out in cooperation with an external partner, the external committee member may be appointed by the partner school). Supervisor(s) of the student are not allowed to be committee members. The dissertation defense committee is quorate if at least three of its members are present. In the event of a tie, the committee chairman has the right to decide.

DBA Dissertation Opponent Review
There will be two reviews of the dissertation: one from the student’s supervisor and one from an external opponent. In case that the DBA program is carried out in cooperation with an external partner, there will be one more review from the supervisor which was appointed by the partner school (three reviews in total).

  • Opponents submit their comments on the student’s doctoral thesis at least two weeks in advance (the deadline for submitting comments can be individually adjusted by the DBA Center).

In case of an unsuccessful defense of the dissertation, the student must incorporate the comments of the committee into the dissertation and may request a new defense date, but not earlier than after 3 months.

Planned Final Defenses:

  • Mr. Vikram Chowdhary – March 6, 2024
  • Author: Marie Lopez Gutierrez
  • Created on:
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