Part-Time Executive PhD in Business
Today's business executives face unprecedented challenges that require uncommon leadership and the ability to gain deep insight into the issues that define the global economy. Bentley's part-time, accelerated PhD program combines business with world-class research in a cohort environment to create a transformational learning experience that prepares graduates for myriad opportunities.
A Transformative Learning Experience
Bentley's part-time Executive PhD in Business delivers an intellectually rigorous and critically relevant academic opportunity for seasoned professionals. The program develops a new breed of high-achieving industry leaders who combine business acumen with a research-driven mindset. Graduates will earn more than a valuable credential. They will gain the rare ability to identify the most consequential of challenges, the analytical toolset to reach data-driven decisions, and the insights to manage change in any business or organization.
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Information Session
Priority Application Deadline
Information Session
Program Attributes
Part-Time
Earn your PhD on a schedule that allows you to maintain your high-powered career and busy life.
Accelerated
Graduate in three years, far faster than traditional five-year PhD programs.
Flexible
Virtual classes can be taken from home, the office, or anywhere you want. Face-to-face sessions bring students and faculty together twice each semester.
Cohort-Based
Grow your network by studying with the same dedicated group of peer business leaders over the course of your program.
Why an Executive PhD?
Choose an Area of Focus
Leadership
The challenges facing business executives today are interdisciplinary in nature and require a broad range of skills and human understanding to manage change. This program emphasizes an understanding of organizational behavior to help you become a transformational leader equipped to handle complex business situations. Whether it's sustainability, climate change, ethics, social auditing or diversity equity and inclusion, you will engage in research to help solve problems around contemporary leadership issues.
Advanced Business Analytics
The increased use of advanced analytical tools and the volume of available data require business executives to embrace new ways to improve decision making. In this program, PhD students will explore the human side of big data and learn the technical, analytical and modeling skills required to solve some of them most complex problems facing society today. The program will make strategic use of Bentley's Center for Analytics and Data Science.
Experience Design
This fast-growing discipline explores and researches the ethics, aesthetics and design of products or services from a human perspective. Experience design practitioners with doctoral degrees are in high demand and the credential has become mandatory for certain leadership roles in design and research. Students focusing in this area will benefit from Bentley's national reputation in this field and our state-of-the-art User Experience Center, Haptics Lab and Virtual and Augmented Reality Lab.
Program Structure
Program Information and Details
Admission Requirements
- Master’s degree required
- Minimum eight years work experience
- Demonstrated leadership experience in business
Application Requirements (Application Opens in October)
- Résumé
- All academic transcripts
- GMAT or GRE scores (optional)
- Personal statement
- Two letters of recommendation
- Interview
- Application fee ($150)
Following the initial application:
- Finalists will be invited to participate in a research webinar and asked to submit an 8 to 10 page research proposal. This research proposal will serve as an early preview of a dissertation topic.
Application Deadlines
- Priority admission deadline is January 7, 2026
- Final deadline is in March 16, 2026
- Finalists will be notified of advancing to the next round on a rolling basis.
- The program is designed to be completed in three years over the course of nine semesters. The total cost of the three-year program is $153,000, or $17,000 per semester.
- The program cost includes tuition, books and software.
- Students are responsible for the cost of travel and lodging associated with attending the required immersion weekends.
Learn more about Tuition and Fees, Refund Policy, Payment and Financing Options
How does this program differ from Bentley’s PhD in Business and PhD in Accounting?
This program allows students to maintain their career while earning their PhD in a flexible, accelerated, part-time format.
Is this degree the same as a DBA?
No. The DBA generally has fewer degree requirements and is considered a professional doctorate. There is less of a focus on producing publishable work. The Bentley Executive PhD degree is the same degree that full time students receive; it is a PhD in Business. It is rigorous and research oriented. Executives bring their workplace challenges, and cultivate their expertise to solve them.
What are the on-campus requirements?
During the first year of the program there is an orientation plus three on-campus immersions (Friday/Saturday) during both the fall and spring semesters. During the summer semester there are two immersions (Friday/Saturday). During the second year of the program there are three immersions (Friday/Saturday) during both the fall and spring semesters, and two immersions during summer term.
How do I find a faculty adviser?
Students will be matched with a faculty advisor during the admissions process and will begin meeting with their advisors during the first semester.
How do the three focus areas work with the PhD?
Students will pick one of these areas (Leadership, Advanced Business Analytics, Experience Design) for course work and research leading toward their dissertation.
What is the deadline to apply?
Appointments to discuss interest for Fall 2026 with Dr. Brown will be available starting in August of 2025.
Work With World-Class Experts
Dr. Pierre Berthon
Teaching interests include: Strategic Marketing, Research Methods, Design, Ethics and Aesthetics
Dr. Tatiana Manolova
Teaching interests include: Competitive Strategy; Global Strategy; International Entrepreneurship
Dr. Mingfei Li
Teaching interests include: Applied Statistics; Applied Game Theory; Health and Business Analysis
for more information
Jill A. Brown (PhD, University of Georgia) is the Hieken Professor of Business Ethics and Professor of management at Bentley University. Her scholarly interests include ethics, corporate social responsibility, social entrepreneurship, corporate governance and strategic leadership. Prior to her career in academia, Brown was a commercial banker and consultant.
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