Degree In Business Administration, University of Bath, UK.
Created | Updated Jan 28, 2002
The Degree in Business Adminitration (or DBA as it is better known) is one of the largest single courses at the University of Bath with approximately 130 undergraduates in each year. The School of Management in the university which runs the course is the largest subject area in terms of students and merits being a faculty on its own.
Course Details
The course is four years long and incorporates two six month work placements almost exclusively paid at competitive rates, one at the beginning of the second year and a second halfway through third year. This means students have a year of lectures; six months working; another year of lectures; followed by another six months in industry and a final year of lectures to finish. It is a modular degree course with a total of ten compulsory and two free choice option modules in the first year though all modules for the other years are freely chosen save for compulsory group projects. As it is a science degree1 there is a lot of contact time with lecturers and other staff amounting to approximately 18-20 hours a week between lectures and seminar/tutorial/workshop classes
Other Aspects
The amount of time spent in lectures and classes doesn't seem to filter through to other students at the university. The engineering department has something of a vendetta against DBA students (DBAs) and there was a constant slanging match between the two in the old student newpaper 2.
This will probably be because as a group the DBAs are among the most sociable of the students at Bath and play far harder than they work. The engineers are also most likely jealous of the male:female ratio running at 90:10 in engineering, it is far more even in manangement at 49:51
Finishing the course
All students get placements making them amongst the more desirable business graduates around, the relevant experience doing wonders for the CVs. The course is also quite business oriented with a large number of contacts in industry providing not only job opportunities but also extracurricular training opportunities to improve skills further. Few business courses in the UK provide the same possibilities for their students. Further information can be found at the management school website
Engineers: You never do any work
DBAs: Yes we do
Engineers:But you're all stupid anyway doing a stupid degree
DBAs: Our average grades at A level to get on to this course were two grades higher than yours.
Engineers: It takes no skill.
DBAs: And we'll still end up running/owning the companies you work for and earning twice the salary
Engineers: We're better looking and have better sex lives
Things kind of deteriorate from there.
