You have already led teams, managed budgets, and made decisions. The question is no longer just about learning to manage, but about transforming a real business problem into a defensible doctoral work.
This is where the Doctorate of Business Administration (DBA) UNIVGA differs from the Master of Business Administration (MBA). The former aims for applied research in management with a thesis and defense. The latter mainly consolidates a vision of leadership. To choose, you must therefore consider your goal, your intellectual availability, and the diploma actually awarded.
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| Questions to ask | DBA UNIVGA | MBA UNIVGA |
|---|---|---|
| Your main need | Produce applied research based on a management problem experienced or observed. | Enhance your skills in management, strategy, leadership, and business vision. |
| Your position | Executive, leader, or experienced professional who accepts a researcher-manager approach. | Manager or leader seeking to enhance their management skills. |
| Central deliverable | Thesis to be written and defended before a jury, according to the DBA UNIVGA page. | Master's level program presented by UNIVGA focusing on management and strategy. |
| What cannot be concluded | No defense rate, fee, or verifiable career indicator has been found. | No degree should be presented as an automatic guarantee of promotion or employment. |
DBA UNIVGA: when the subject is already within your company
The right candidate for the DBA UNIVGA does not come only with the desire to add a prestigious line to their resume. They often arrive with a pre-identified professional tension: organizational transformation, governance, performance, human resources, strategy, innovation, risks, client relations, or change management. The expected work consists of moving from managerial intuition to a structured problem, supported by concepts, data, and reasoning.
The UNIVGA page dedicated to the Doctorate of Business Administration emphasizes a target audience of professionals in position and the articulation between practice and theory. It mentions the writing of a thesis and its defense. This is an important signal: you are not just in a course-following logic, but in a path where you must produce original, defensible, and useful work for decision-making.
The Bac+8 positioning must remain cautious. In the French nomenclature, the doctorate falls under level 8, often associated with Bac+8. For the DBA UNIVGA, the safe formulation is therefore: doctoral level program, to be compared to Bac+8, subject to academic conditions and issuance by the relevant partner university.
Degree, certificate, certification: three different decisions
Degree program
The UNIVGA FAQ distinguishes degree programs from certification programs. It specifically mentions professional Bachelor's, Bachelor's, professional Master's, MBA, and DBA among higher education degrees. It also states that these higher degrees are awarded by local or international partner universities.
It associates degree programs with the Bachelor's-Master's-Doctorate (LMD) system, with European Credit Transfer and Accumulation System (ECTS) credits, dedicated teachers, academic calendar, supervised assignments, and defense for levels L3 and above.
Certificate or external certification
A UNIVGA professional certificate attests to a skill but does not constitute an LMD university degree. It is relevant for progressing on a tool, method, or targeted skill, not for aiming at a doctoral path.
Another case: a certification from an organization, for example, in the cybersecurity ecosystem EC-Council or around International Organization for Standardization (ISO) standards. ISO reminds that it does not issue certificates itself. Therefore, it is necessary to identify who trains, who certifies, and what recognition you are seeking.
Distance does not mean alone in front of documents
UNIVGA presents its programs as 100% online. For degree programs, the FAQ describes a distance organization with an academic calendar, videoconference sessions, live supervised assignments, and oral defense before a jury using tools like Zoom or Google Meet.
For a DBA, this Open and Distance Learning (FOAD) logic can suit an active executive, provided that the research requirement is not underestimated. The decisive point is not only to be able to follow remotely but to reserve time to read, problematize, collect or analyze materials, write, and revise one's work after feedback from supervision.
What to check before deciding
- Ask which partner university issues the DBA, under what exact title, and with what academic conditions.
- Check the admission prerequisites, particularly the Master's level Bac+5 mentioned in the UNIVGA FAQ for the DBA.
- Clarify the duration, research schedule, validation steps, supervision modalities, and defense procedures.
- Ask for the total cost and any potential fees, as no verifiable DBA pricing was found in the consulted sources.
- Examine whether your project falls under an MBA, a short certificate, or a DBA: if you are only looking for quickly deployable management tools, the DBA may be disproportionate.
- Do not base your decision on a promise of employment, salary, or promotion: no insertion rate or career indicator specific to the UNIVGA DBA was found.
- Clarify the working language, writing requirements, jury modalities, and rules of ownership or confidentiality if your thesis pertains to your organization.
Official sources
- UNIVGA, Doctorate of Business Administration
- UNIVGA, online training catalog
- UNIVGA, Frequently Asked Questions
- UNIVGA, online MBA
- UNIVGA, Recognitions and partnerships
- French Ministry of Higher Education, nomenclature relating to the level of diploma
- International Organization for Standardization (ISO), certification
- African and Malagasy Council for Higher Education (CAMES), Quality Assurance program
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