Level 8 diploma, PhD or DBA

Three things called doctoral

When a senior manager tells us they are "thinking about a doctorate", they usually have one of three things in mind without yet having separated them. The first is a PhD, the research degree that most people picture. The second is a DBA, the Doctor of Business Administration, a professional doctorate designed for practitioners. The third, which they have often encountered through an advertisement, is a Level 8 diploma. All three are placed at Level 8 of the Regulated Qualifications Framework or its higher-education equivalent. Beyond that, they differ in purpose, structure, duration, examination, awarding body and outcome, and the differences are large enough that choosing the wrong one costs years.

This chapter takes each in turn and then puts them together. It is written by a recruitment agent that is paid by the approved centre, London School of Planning and Management (LSPM), when a reader enrols on one of the diplomas, and we have tried to be as fair to the doctorates as to the diplomas we are paid to recommend.

The PhD

A Doctor of Philosophy is a research degree. Its single requirement is a thesis that makes an original contribution to knowledge, and everything else about the programme exists to support that. A candidate is admitted on the strength of a research proposal and a good master's degree, is assigned one or more supervisors, and spends three to four years full time, or up to eight part time, producing a piece of work that is commonly in the region of eighty thousand words. The thesis is then examined by an internal and an external examiner, and defended orally at a viva. There may be some taught research training in the first year, but it is not usually credit-bearing towards the award, and the degree is not awarded for coursework.

A PhD is awarded by a university that holds research degree-awarding powers, granted by the Privy Council or the Office for Students. Its quality is assured by the university's own regulations within the sector's quality code. It confers the title of doctor. Its natural home is the academy, though PhDs are held across industry and the professions.

The DBA

A Doctor of Business Administration is a professional doctorate. It exists because universities recognised that experienced managers wanted doctoral-level study whose contribution would be to practice rather than to theory alone, and who could not stop working to do it. A DBA typically has two phases. The first is taught: modules in research philosophy and methods, advanced strategy and leadership, and the development of a research proposal, often carrying credit and often assessed by assignment. The second is a supervised applied research project, usually shorter than a PhD thesis at fifty to sixty thousand words, or a portfolio of linked pieces, examined by thesis and viva in the same way.

A DBA takes four to six years part time in most universities and is credit-rated in many of them, at a figure such as 540 credits. Entry normally requires a master's or MBA together with several years of senior management. Like the PhD it is awarded by a university with research degree-awarding powers, regulated within the quality code, and it confers the title of doctor. It is the doctorate most Level 8 diploma holders have in mind when they think about progression.

The Level 8 diploma

A Level 8 diploma is a regulated vocational qualification, not a degree. It is owned and awarded by an awarding organisation recognised by Ofqual, delivered by an approved centre, and structured in units, each with learning outcomes and assessment criteria. The OTHM diploma is 180 credits, of which sixty sit in two research units; the Qualifi diploma is 160 credits across eight mandatory units, one of them on research methods. A learner passes each unit by meeting every one of its criteria through written assignments, which are marked by the centre and sampled by the awarding organisation's external verifier.

There is no thesis and no viva. The research component in the larger diploma culminates in a fully developed research proposal and a demonstration of research capability on a bounded scale, which is a great deal more than most master's programmes ask but a great deal less than a doctorate examines. Duration is set by the centre; LSPM offers the programme over eighteen to twenty-four months alongside work. Completing it confers a diploma. It does not confer a title.

Side by side

Put plainly, the three differ in every respect that matters to a decision.

The values for the two doctorates are typical rather than universal; universities set their own. The values for the diplomas are the awarding bodies' published figures.

Same level, different size

The point that needs stating most carefully is the relationship between level and size, because it is where the marketing of Level 8 diplomas most often goes wrong.

Level is a statement about the standard of the work. Size is a statement about how much of it there is. The two are independent, and a qualification can be small and high, which is precisely what a Level 8 diploma is. Its units are written to the doctoral descriptor and its assignments are marked against it; a learner who has passed them has produced work at doctoral standard. But 180 credits is a fraction of a doctorate, and the diploma does not include the sustained, examined, original contribution that is the whole point of one. To say that the diploma is "at doctoral level" is accurate. To say that it is "equivalent to a doctorate" is not, and any provider who says so should be asked to show you where the thesis is.

Which one, then

The question we put to applicants is not "which is best" but "what do you actually want at the end, and how much of your life will you give to getting it".

If you want to be called doctor, you need a doctorate, and no diploma will substitute. If you want an academic career, you almost certainly need a PhD. If you want a doctorate that engages directly with your own practice, and you can give it four to six years part time, a DBA is designed for you.

A Level 8 diploma answers a different question. It suits someone who wants doctoral-standard training in strategy and research, completed within a defined period alongside a senior role, who may or may not go on to a doctorate afterwards, and who would rather find out whether they have the appetite for doctoral work before committing half a decade to it. It also suits someone who needs a regulated qualification at the highest level of the framework for its own sake, and for whom the title of doctor is not the object.

A DBA admissions tutor who sees a Level 8 diploma on an application sees a candidate who has already written a supervised research proposal, been assessed at Level 8, and demonstrated that they can sustain doctoral-standard work part time. Whether that earns advanced standing is the university's decision, and the chapter on progression deals with it. But it is an honest advantage, and it is the honest case for the diploma as a step rather than a destination.

The next chapter turns from the qualification to the person, and asks who should be considering Level 8 at all.