DOCTOR OFBUSINESS ADMINISTRATIONDBA

Non-local Higher & Professional Education (Regulation) Ordinance Registration No. 211259

Message from the Pro Vice-Chancellor

The University of Newcastle

Newcastle Business School

The Hong Kong Management Association

The Doctor of Business Administration Program

Course units

Format of study

Application and admission information

How to apply

CONTENTS

MESSAGE FROM THE

PRO VICE-CHANCELLOR BUSINESS AND LAW

Welcome to Faculty of Business and Law

The University of Newcastle is a confident, competitive university, with a rapidlyincreasing capacity to attract distinguished academic staff and the brightest students,and substantially grow its range of partnerships locally and internationally.

The University is known for its research and teaching excellence. The researchculture at Newcastle is lively and committed to further growth and success. TheUniversity also enjoys significant research and teaching partnerships with universitiesthroughout Asia and the Pacific and in Europe, North America and Africa. They willcontinue to grow in number and in importance.

We are pleased to be able to offer executives from Hong Kong and the surroundingregion an opportunity to experience the high standards of management educationthat Newcastle provides.

The academic staff take pride in the delivery of innovative and cutting edge coursesensuring that our graduates experience very high employment levels. Our staff arecommitted to helping you gain the most from your studies and are available forconsultation and to give assistance.

You will also find that the management staff, whether at the School or the Facultylevel, are also highly professional and supportive, and will happily provide you withall assistance possible.

I wish you every success in your studies at the University and for your future.

Professor Stephen NicholasPro Vice-ChancellorFaculty of Business and LawThe University of Newcastle

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THE UNIVERSITY OF NEWCASTLE AUSTRALIA

The University of Newcastle was established in 1965 and has an internationalreputation for providing leading-edge research and education to the world. Ithas a student population of over 30,000, including over 4,000 internationalstudents from more than 80 countries studying both on and off-shore inbusiness, engineering, medicine, nursing, science, teaching and technology.

Some important facts on the university of newcastle:

• The University of Newcastle is a dynamic, research intensive University ranked inAustralia’s top 10 university for research. The University has an internationalreputation for expertise in innovative approaches to teaching and learning.

• We have award winning teachers, Federation Fellows, Centres of Excellence andhighly cited researchers in many disciplines.

• The Faculty of Business and Law is globally connected, with strong teaching andresearch links to international institutions. Researchers from our Faculty collaboratewith international research groups and organizations to find solutions to the challengesfacing Australia, Asia and the world. Links with Chinese universities include:• Beihang University• Beijing Foreign Studies University• Jilin University• Nanjing University Business School• Shandong University

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NEWCASTLE BUSINESS SCHOOL

The Newcastle Business School (NBS) is a successful, competitive business schoolthat prides itself on the provision of quality, innovative programs. NBS has forgeda strong reputation for its responsiveness to industry needs since its establishment.

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A unique approach to learning

The NBS is firmly committed to problem-based learning, an experiential andcontextual approach to teaching and learning, a practice pioneered by theUniversity and now acknowledged both nationally and internationally to be ahighly successful method. Teamwork is an important component of problem-basedlearning. It is through group interaction that students personal skills are mostchallenged. Skills such as leadership, cultural sensitivity, presentation anddebating are demanded in today’s workplace. The combination of theory andproblem-based learning achieves maximum learning outcomes.

Lecturing staff

Highly qualified lecturers are drawn from the University along with qualified businessprofessionals to teach in the NBS. Before and after each trimester, staff attend workshopswhere teaching philosophies and ideas are discussed and adult learning issues areexamined. The staff are committed to excellence in teaching and to ensuring that allNBS’s programs are intellectually rigorous and relevant to the marketplace.

Senior and experienced NBS staff are specially selected to travel to Hong Kong toteach the MBus / DBA including the Deputy Head of the Faculty of Business andLaw, Head of the NBS and several associate professors and senior lecturers.

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A student-focused environment

The NBS gives special attention to the needs of postgraduate students. The staffhave an ‘open door policy’ and every student is treated as an individual. Staffacknowledge the value of professional networks and facilitates the development ofsuch networks.

Research-led teaching

The University of Newcastle is a major research university with a proud history ofresearch excellence. It has over 750 research academics, 150 research support staffand 1,000 research higher degree students. They are formed into research groups orteams and make joint use of the University’s world class laboratories, researchequipment and library resources

High quality research is an essential feature of a good university. Academic staffwithin the Newcastle Business School engage in research in a number of key areas,including marketing, human resource management, industrial relations, employmentrelations, international business, accounting and finance.

International staff exchange and visiting academics

The Faculty has reciprocal staff exchange agreements with various internationalinstitutions. Staff exchange represents the opportunity to develop and strengthenlinks with international institutions as well as provide staff with the opportunity todevelop individual skills and attain a valuable global experience. The NBS also hostsseveral visiting professors including a recent visit from Professor Shuming Zhao, Deanof Nanjing University.

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HONG KONG MANAGEMENT ASSOCIATION

The Hong Kong Management Association (HKMA) is a non-profit makingorganisation established since 1960 for the purpose of improving theeffectiveness and efficiency of management in Hong Kong.

Since its establishment, HKMA has played a major role in contributing to theeconomic success of Hong Kong by providing a wide variety of high qualitymanagement training and various services.

As a membership organization, HKMA currently has a collective membership of over14,000 from different business sectors. Members of the Council and Committeescomprise eminent persons in industry, commerce and education who constantlyadvise on the directions and activities of the Association.

As part of HKMA’s commitment to providing opportunities of continuingdevelopment for local executives, a full-spectrum of management educationprogrammes are offered, ranging from short courses and workshops through toCertificate, Diplomas, Bachelor, Master and Doctoral Degree programmes. Annually,some 2,000 integrated and well-balanced courses are offered to some 54,000participants from different business sectors.

In 2003 the Faculty of Business and Law formed a partnership with the Hong KongManagement Association to offer the Doctor of Business Administration (DBA)program. The Master of Business (MBus) program commenced in 2004 and therehave been numerous successful graduates completing these programs each year.

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The world of business and managementis undergoing rapid and profoundchanges. Theories, practices andstrategies are under constant review.Institutional leaders, policy makers andmanagers everywhere are increasinglyconfronted by new and challengingimperatives. This is precipitating theneed for new knowledge, while at thesame time the currency of managementknowledge appears to be shortening.

The goal of this Doctor of BusinessAdministration (DBA), as a coursework-based professional doctorate, is to furtherdevelop the competencies of practicingmanagers and business professionals and toequip them with the capability to makeleadership contributions to their ownorganizations, wider industries andcommunities. The DBA will bepredominantly offered face-to-face withstructured support for all coursework andthe dissertation.

The program will enable graduates todevelop rigorous, in-depth, analytical andcritically self-reflective skills well beyond theMBA or Master of Business level. The DBAwill also equip business executives withtools to undertake significant appliedresearch in order to perform in anincreasingly competitive global businessenvironment. The curriculum offerssuccessful candidates a highly customisedprogram including further advancedpostgraduate study beyond that achieved inan MBA or Master of Business.

Program objectives

The Doctor of Business Administrationprogram will offer a structured courseworkprogram at the doctoral level that equipscandidates with the capabilities and skillsneeded to make a significant contributionto leadership in their own organization,wider industry and community. Specificobjectives include:

• To build on students core knowledge ofbusiness, acquired through earlierstudies and work experience, enablingthem to gain knowledge and expertisein new aspects of business.

• To enable students to acquire skills inresearch, enabling them to evaluate theresearch of others in the field and totranslate acquired knowledge quicklyinto practice in ways that facilitatebusiness growth.

• To enable students, through theirapplied project dissertation, to acquirenew knowledge in a chosen area ofbusiness typically relevant to their hostfirm and their own career objectives,leading to an improved understandingof how to manage an organizationeffectively in a global and rapidlychanging environment.

• To give students the skills and standingto contribute to the development of theglobal economy in an ethical,environmentally aware and sociallyresponsible way through theirprofessional practice.

DOCTOR OF BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION

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Program structure

The DBA program is offered by the University ofNewcastle in Australia over three years,encompassing 18 courses (subjects) plus aresearch dissertation. The program offered in HongKong is an advanced standing program, givingholders of a recognized MBA exemptions from thefirst year of the program. Successful candidateswith recognized MBA qualifications are thereforegiven direct entry to Year two, and must completesix taught DBA courses plus four taught researchcourses and a dissertation to complete the Degreeover two years of study.

Year two requires completion of six taught DBAcourses with structured coursework, along withtwo taught research courses. Year three includesthe remaining two research taught courses,followed by the Dissertation Project whichconsists of approximately 30,000 to 40,000words. Each student will be allocated asupervisor appropriate to his or her research areawho is an experienced and research trainedacademic staff member.

Year

One

Two

Three

Content

• 8 courses(graduates from recognized 12-course MBAprograms are exempted from this year)

• Managing Organisational Change *#

• International Business Strategy #

• Relationship Marketing #

• Knowledge Management #

• Global Corporate Governance and SocialResponsibility

• Advanced Topics in General Management *• Research Methods I• Research Methods II

• Literature Review• Research Proposal• Appointment of Supervisor and Completion

of Disseration Project

# These courses may be subject to change

* Courses that have been included in the list ofreimbursable courses for CEF purpose. Students will bereimbursed 80% of their fees, subject to a maximum sumof HK$10,000, on successful completion of the course(s)(subject to other eligibility conditions for CEF).

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COURSE UNITS

Managing Organisational Change

The purpose of this course is to offer students interestedin the field of management a course that examines theprocess of change and their effects on the strategicdynamics of an organization. Students will becomefamiliar with a variety of conceptual models specificallydesigned to explain the process of change inorganizations. Structural, human, political and symbolicimpediments to strategic change in organizations will beexamined and students will be equipped with ananalytical framework from which to develop diagnosticand interventional techniques directly applicable to theprocess of organizational review.

International Business Strategy

This course provides a comprehensive analysis of a rangeof issues dealing with multi-domestic, international, globaland transnational strategies. While the course mainly dealswith the large corporations operating in a complex andcompetitive environment, emphasis is also given to thechoice of international business strategies available tosmall and medium size companies. With the help of casestudies and selected readings, the course analyses thecompetitive as well as collaborative strategies practiced inthe international business arena.

Relationship Marketing

This course builds on the transaction oriented principlesof personal selling and negotiation. It is intended toequip students with the necessary expertise that modernglobal organizations require, in order to establish moresophisticated long-term collaborative relationships withintheir channels and ultimately their client bases. Casestudies of relationship programs of largescale, globalorganizations, will be assessed in order to developcompetencies for delivering focused and continuousattention to key customer accounts.

Knowledge Management

The modern organization is focused on the delivery ofhighly sophisticated products and services. In such anorganisation the primary resource is knowledge;knowledge on how to produce, market and distribute theproduct. This unit covers all aspects of knowledgemanagement, including organizational communication,knowledge repositories and retrieval. Both technical andhuman aspects of knowledge management are covered.

Global Corporate Governance and SocialResponsibility

An examination of the contemporary universal issues indoing business ethically across borders and unravellingethical considerations and dilemmas. Students willdevelop tool kits to assist them to deal with thesecomplex issues and the promotion of sound corporategovernance practices across cultures will beemphasized.

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Advanced Topics in General Management

This course focuses on controversies in managementliterature. It provides students with an opportunity toexplore a controversy related to their proposeddissertation topic. The course emphasies critical thinkingand argumentation.

Literature Review

This course requires candidates to review the literaturerelevant to their chosen dissertation area and to presentthe review in the form of a coherent report of 5,000 words.Candidates thereby demonstrate appropriate researchskills, a knowledge of the substantive topic and acapacity both to critically evaluate the existing literatureand to locate their original research questions within thatliterature.

Research Methods I

This course explores methodological options with a viewto fully appreciating, and becoming proficient inevaluating research approaches and selecting andapplying a method to their own research.

Research Methods II

This course builds on the studies undertaken in ResearchMethods I to further develop practical applications inquantative methods.

Research Proposal

This course requires candidates to review their LiteratureReview and Research Methods courses to present acoherent research proposal of 25,000 words. Researchplans and preparations for Ethics submissions are coveredin this course.

The Dissertation

In addition to the coursework units, studentsundertake a comprehensive doctoral dissertationtypically undertaken within their host firm. Thedissertation is completed by each student on anindividual basis, over a minimum period of sixmonths.

The aim of the dissertation is to demonstrate that thecandidate has made a distinctive contribution to theimprovement of professional practice, policy orstrategy in the field of management. Uponcompletion, the student should be able to submitand defend a research work making such acontribution. Students should begin to consider thenature of the thesis and the topics to be coveredduring the coursework component.

Academic supervisors will be drawn from Faculty ofBusiness and Law’s complement of highly qualifiedstaff, who are readily available via telephone, fax oremail. Regular progress workshops will beconducted in Hong Kong for DBA students.

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FORMAT OF STUDY

All taught courses will be conducted through anoffshore Intensive Seminar block teaching mode, fullytaught by NBS fulltime Faculty members.

Each course will generally have a six to eight weekstudy schedule as follows:

Week 1 Course preparation: unit outline,textbook and study materials

Week 2-3 Intensive Seminar by lecturer from theUniversity of Newcastle

Week 4-5 Revision

Week 6-7 Course work: assignment, projects, etc

Week 8 Break

Each Intensive Seminar consists of a total of 36 contacthours and will be scheduled on two consecutiveweekends plus two weekdays evenings as follows.

Weekday 1 6:30 pm - 9:30 pm

Saturday 2:00 pm - 9:00 pm

Sunday 9:00 am - 5:00 pmWeekday 2 6:30 pm - 9:30 pm

Saturday 2:00 pm - 9:00 pm

Sunday 9:00 am - 4:00 pm

Students maintain contact with lecturers for the durationof the course through the learning portal, Blackboard.

PROGRAM ASSESSMENT

Six taught DBA courses

The six taught DBA courses of the program eachinvolves 36 hours of face-to-face lectures. Eachcourse will develop and enhance the skills requiredto undertake the dissertation.

Four taught research courses and dissertation project

Students would be continuously assessed for the fourtaught research courses. Each taught research courseinvolves 36 hours face-to-face lectures. Students haveto submit and pass an applied dissertation project of30,000 to 40,000 words in order to complete the studyof the DBA program.

Awards

Participants upon successful completion of theprogram will be awarded the Doctor of BusinessAdministration by the University of Newcastle which hasexactly the same status as the home qualification inAustralia.

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To maintain the high standards of the program,admission to the DBA program is highly competitive.Successful applicants will be appropriately qualified andexperienced, highly motivated and have researchinterests that complement those of the faculty.

Entrance requirements

To be eligible for the DBA program offered in HongKong with advanced standing status, applicants musthave:a. A completed Master of Business or a Master of

Business Administration (MBA) degree (12-courseprogram) from a recognized institution;

b. At least two years working experience; andc. Demonstrated proficiency in English language,

such as an MBA taught in English or IELTS 6.5 orabove.

Other Master qualifications in a business-relateddiscipline will be considered on a case-by-case basis.

The selection process

Selection is based on the applicants demonstratedrecord of occupational and academic achievement aswell as assessments of managerial potential. As places inthe program will be limited, candidates may be rankedon the basis of academic merit (determined by GPA inthe last masters degree awarded).

Successful applicants will be notified by mail as soon asa decision has been made.

IT requirements

In order to gain the maximum benefit from servicesoffered by the University, students are required to haveaccess to a computer, modem and commercial internetservice provider.

Program fee

The total tuition fee for Year 2 and Year 3 is HK$242,300by 10 instalmentspayable every 2 months.

Year one: Exempted for recognised MBA holdersYear two: HK$24,230 x 6 instalmentsYear three: HK$24,230 x 4 instalments

(A Continuation Fee of HK$6,000 per 3 months will becharged if students cannot complete the dissertation inthe required time period)

APPLICATION AND ADMISSION INFORMATION

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HOW TO APPLY

To apply for a place in the program, candidates shouldsend the following:

1. Two sets of completed Application forms (oneoriginal and one photocopy for admission to theUniversity of Newcastle Doctor of BusinessAdministration;

2. Two sets of photocopies of all the educationalqualifications including academic transcripts forundergraduate and postgraduate qualifications;

3. A non-refundable application fee of HK$250. Thecheque should be crossed and made payable tothe Hong Kong Management Association; and

4. Two passport sized photographs.

Remarks

Supporting documents including certificates ANDtranscripts are necessary. If you would like to apply forfurther credit exemption, please provide a certifiedcopy of the relevant syllabus.

By post

Attn: The local Newcastle DBA SecretariatThe Hong Kong Management Association16/F Tower B Southmark11 Yip Hing StreetWong Chuk HangHONG KONG

In person

Central Head Office T: 2526 6516Wanchai Centre T: 2574 9346Pico Tower Centre T: 2866 4551First Commercial Building Centre T: 2574 2238Wong Chuk Hang Centre T: 2766 3303on or before the Deadline

Further information

For further details about the program and enquirieson application procedures, please contact:Customer Service DepartmentT: 2774 8501 / 2774 8590F: 2365 1000E: degree.newcastle@hkma.org.hkW: www.hkma.org.hk

If you would like to receive acknowledgement of receipt,

please affix stamp and complex below.

Name:

Address:

The Local Newcastle DBA SecretariatThe Hong Kong Management Association16/F Tower B Southmark11 Yip Hing StreetWong Chuk Hang HONG KONG

DBA-2010-1

The information contained in this brochure is correct at the time of printing. The Associationreserves the right to cancel a programme and/or make alterations in relation to itslecturers, contents, dates, time, venue and other particulars without prior notice.

T 2774 8501 / 2774 8590F 2365 1000E degree.newcastle@hkma.org.hkW www.hkma.org.hk/newcastle/dba

It is a matter of discretion for individual employers to recognise any qualification towhich this course may lead.

The information contained in this brochure is correct at the time of printing. The University reserves the right to vary any information in the brochureat any time without notice. It is a matter of discretion for individual employers to recognise any qualification to which this course may lead.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

This is to confirm receipt of yourapplication form for the Doctor of BusinessAdministration program of the University ofNewcastle. You will be notified by mail onthe result of your application about six toeight weeks after the application deadline.