Academics

Business Administration, PhD

Business Administration, PhD

Announcements

  • Applications for Fall 2012 are now closed. Decisions have not been made yet. To inquire about applying for fall 2013, please contact PhDCM@umb.edu.

PhD Program

The doctoral program in business administration at the College of Management at UMass Boston is a selective full-time program that trains students for academic and professional careers. Candidates devise their own course of study, with guidance from a faculty committee, and undertake in-depth study in one of three tracks: Organizations and Social Change (starting in 2012), Finance (starting in 2014), and Management Information Systems (starting in 2016). The program takes three to four years to complete. Learn more about the programs of study.

Two years of full-time coursework is required. The particular courses taken vary by track and are tailored to each student’s needs, in consultation with his or her faculty advisors. Courses are selected from those available at the College of Management and other departments at the University of Massachusetts Boston and, in some cases, other institutions in metro Boston and beyond.

Students must also pass a major field requirement (exams and major papers, depending upon the track), usually taken between the second and third year of residence, and to propose, carry out, and defend a dissertation. In addition to coursework and dissertation research, students are expected to serve as research assistants for faculty members and, in most cases, as course instructors. Students in good standing who lack external funding are guaranteed up to four years of support with an annual stipend and tuition waiver.

For details regarding application requirements, financial support, and the admission process please visit the admissions page of the PhD program in Business Administration. Also, for further information, please visit our PhD in Business Administration FAQs.


Faculty Teaching in this Program

This program is supported by a dedicated faculty who pursue a broad research agenda in the areas of Strategy, Corporate Social Responsibility, Entrepreneurship, Organizational Behavior, Human Resources, Finance, and Management Information Systems. The faculty work closely with doctoral students as collaborators, mentors, and research advisors beginning in the first semester of the program. Their bios can be found on the faculty listing webpage.

Developing as Professionals

To prepare for the academic path, students participate in a teaching seminar and practicum in their second year and then are offered opportunities to teach a variety of undergraduate courses. Career development workshops are also offered, and focus on topics such as writing research grants, the interviewing process, and delivering a successful research talk. Faculty advisors and student mentors are assigned to each student to facilitate their success within the program.

A Mentorship Philosophy

While the resources available to our doctoral students are vast, the PhD program itself is intentionally small. We believe in nurturing those students who best fit our program’s philosophy and supplying them with the resources to succeed. We ask our faculty to weigh admissions using these criteria to ensure students will be mentored effectively.

A distinguishing feature of UMass Boston is the collegial spirit and noncompetitive nature of the community. Students collaborate on projects and assist each other; joint research with faculty is common. Our informal atmosphere and open-door policy encourage students to engage in conversation with faculty or continue seminar discussions with distinguished visitors beyond the allotted class time and space.

University Ranking

In 2010, the University of Massachusetts ranked 56th in the Times of London’s Top 200 World University Rankings, which the newspaper describes as “the gold standard for world-class research institutions.”

UMass Boston’s College of Management is increasingly gaining a reputation as a business school that treats business issues in terms of their broad societal context and implications, consonant with the UMass Boston mission.  We are featured as one of the “Best 300 Business Schools” by Princeton Review, and we are rated in the top 100 according to the Aspen Institute’s alternative ranking of MBA programs in Beyond Grey Pinstripes, which is based on how well we integrate social and environmental issues into our curricula and research. The college is a signatory to the UN’s Principles for Responsible Management Education (PRME) initiative to encourage corporate responsibility and sustainability.

Boston's Public University

With a growing reputation for innovative research addressing complex urban issues, the University of Massachusetts Boston, metropolitan Boston’s only public university, offers its diverse student population both an intimate learning environment and the rich experience of a great American city. UMass Boston’s eight colleges and graduate schools serve more than 15,000 students while engaging local, national, and international constituents through academic programs, research centers, and public service activities. To learn more about UMass Boston, visit http://www.umb.edu.

Contact

If you have additional questions, please contact the PhD Organizations and Social Change Track Chair, Maureen Scully (maureen.scully@umb.edu)  or the PhD Program Director, Associate Dean Arthur Goldsmith (arthur.goldsmith@umb.edu).


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