AEES Professional DBA
A private professional doctoral programme based on applied management research. It does not confer the French national doctorate and must never be presented as a state university PhD.
Status of awards
AEES qualifications are private institutional awards. They are not French national degrees (licence, master, doctorat), unless a verifiable statement appears on the relevant specification.
AEES-Q-DBA-8 · AEES level 8
- Exact status
- Private professional doctorate — AEES DBA
- Internal level
- AEES 8
- Admission
- A postgraduate award (AEES Level 7 or documented private equivalent) and five years’ senior experience. Research proposal, two academic or professional references, interview with the academic council.
- Duration
- 36 months minimum
- Delivery mode
- Direct delivery by AEES or an expressly approved partner centre
- Volume
- 1800 h · 180 internal credits
- Learning outcomes
- Formulate an applied research question and a protocol.
- Produce a professional thesis of 40,000–60,000 words.
- Defend the work before a board including at least one examiner external to AEES and the host institution.
- Contribute to a supervised academic seminar.
- Assessment
- Framing confirmation (year 1), annual progress reports, thesis, viva. Collegial decision. Appeal lies to the ethics and appeals committee.
- Teaching institution
- AEES scientific supervision; possible hosting in an approved partner centre.
- Awarding institution
- AEES
- Recognition / equivalences
- This DBA is not a university doctorate under the French Education Code. It does not confer a right of access to French public research careers. It must not be confused with an honorary doctorate: the AEES DBA is an assessed research programme, with limited intake and no paid automatic admission.
Public qualification document · version 2026.1 · AEES may withdraw an award from the catalogue if assessment conditions can no longer be guaranteed.