Dunster Business School

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Dunster Business School is a private institution in Switzerland offering doctoral routes online, including a DBA, a PhD, a Doctorate by Published Work and a recognition-of-prior-learning route.

CareerSkale is listed by Dunster Business School as a Validated Admission Partner (Bronze). You can verify this at dunster.ch/careerskale. This is the only CareerSkale relationship on this site that the institution itself publishes.

It is worth knowing what that listing is. Dunster's sitemap carries roughly 39 partner pages following the same pattern, nearly all last modified on the same day in July 2026. Bronze is the lowest of the tiers we could confirm. The listing is real and checkable; it is not a distinction.

Checked 28 August 2026. Fees, entry rules and accreditation status change — verify anything here against Dunster's current pages before you rely on it.

What it awards

Dunster awards its own private institutional qualifications. Five doctoral routes are published:

RouteDuration published
Doctor of Business Administration Coursework, then research, then thesis across semesters 3–6
Regular PhD 3–5 years
PhD with recognition of prior learning 1–2 years "instead of 3–5"
Doctorate by Published Work Normal registration 12 months
Professional Doctorate (DBA/EdD) Not published
Option 01 of 05

Doctor of Business Administration

Route

Doctor of Business Administration

Duration published

Coursework, then research, then thesis across semesters 3–6

Route

Doctor of Business Administration

Duration published

Coursework, then research, then thesis across semesters 3–6

Route

Regular PhD

Duration published

3–5 years

Route

PhD with recognition of prior learning

Duration published

1–2 years "instead of 3–5"

Route

Doctorate by Published Work

Duration published

Normal registration 12 months

Route

Professional Doctorate (DBA/EdD)

Duration published

Not published

An honorary doctorate is also offered. An honorary award is not an earned doctorate and is not equivalent to one.

Two details on the Doctorate by Published Work are worth raising directly with Dunster. Its eligibility wording closely mirrors the University of Warwick's published regulations for that route — but Warwick requires a viva, and Dunster's page does not state one. Ask whether an oral examination forms part of the assessment, and get the answer in writing.

What it costs

Dunster publishes no fee for any of its programmes. Not for the DBA, not for the PhD, not for any other route.

That is unusual and it matters practically: you cannot compare Dunster on cost against any other option in our institution comparison until you have obtained a written quotation. When you ask for one, ask for the total — tuition, registration, supervision, examination, extension, resubmission and graduation charges, in a named currency, with the cancellation and refund terms attached.

We have a commercial arrangement with Dunster and may be paid if you enrol. How CareerSkale works and is paid.

What it requires

Entry requirements as published by Dunster:

Criterion 01 of 05

DBA

"Masters Degree or Bachelor's Degree completing 16 years of education OR 5 years of experience after graduation… minimum EQF Level 7"

"Masters Degree or Bachelor's Degree completing 16 years of education OR 5 years of experience after graduation… minimum EQF Level 7"

"Master's degree, research proposal, and academic readiness"

"Proven research output, senior professional experience, or academic contributions"

staff of three years' continuous employment, or "Postgraduates or graduates of at least seven years' standing, holding a Bachelor's degree or equivalent"

"Bachelor's or Master's degree with significant professional experience (typically 5–8+ years)"

How recognition works

Dunster Business School states that it is accredited by QAHE, EAHEA and AAEFL. None of those three bodies appears on the swissuniversities accredited list, EQAR or the CHEA and US Department of Education directories, which are the registers used to verify higher education providers in Switzerland, Europe and the United States.

Dunster also names ACBSP and AACSB. Both are genuine bodies — ACBSP is recognised by CHEA — but Dunster holds candidacy with each, not accreditation. Candidacy means a process is underway. It is not a result. Its QS four-star reference is a commercial rating, and Dunster's own /dbs-at-a-glance/ page describes that as candidacy too.

Dunster is not on the swissuniversities accredited list.

The licence number

Dunster's homepage states: "Dunster Business School is a licensed higher education institution in the Canton of Zug, Switzerland, with Legal License No. CHE-206.619.191."

CHE-206.619.191 is a Swiss UID — the commercial register identification number issued to any registered Swiss entity, including ordinary companies. It is not an education licence, and it does not establish that any authority has assessed Dunster as a higher education institution. Dunster's own site uses the same number correctly elsewhere, labelled "Identification No."

One further inconsistency: the homepage places the school in Canton Zug, while /dbs-at-a-glance/ gives an address in Etoy, which is in Canton Vaud.

What the tier system tells you

Dunster's partner pages record tiers. CareerSkale is Bronze. The tiers we could confirm alongside it include GrowthSkale Education Limited India at Bronze and Aimlay India at Silver — and Aimlay, in our earlier research into honorary doctorates, is a commercial honorary-doctorate broker.

We include this because you are entitled to know what company we keep on that page, and because a partner tier is a commercial category rather than an academic one. It records a recruitment arrangement. It says nothing about the quality of a Dunster award, and nothing about the quality of our advice.

Questions to ask before you pay

  1. What is the total cost of the programme, in writing, including every additional charge?
  2. Which legal entity issues the award, and which entity receives the payment?
  3. Is the award a Swiss federally recognised degree, or a private institutional award?
  4. For the Doctorate by Published Work — is there a viva, and who examines it?
  5. What happens to fees already paid if you withdraw, or if the programme is discontinued?
  6. Will the specific authority you need — an employer, regulator, university or immigration body — accept this award? Ask them, not Dunster.

What is not published, and why that limits this page

Four things a doctoral applicant would normally weigh are absent from Dunster's own website: the fee for any programme, the examination arrangements for the Doctorate by Published Work, a consistent statement of which canton the school operates from, and any register entry confirming its status as a higher education institution.

We cannot fill those gaps by inference and we will not estimate a figure Dunster has chosen not to publish. What we can do is tell you they are gaps, so that a written quotation and a written description of assessment are the first two things you request rather than an afterthought.

Who this may suit

Someone who has verified with the receiving authority that a private Swiss institutional award meets their purpose, who has obtained a written fee quotation, and who has satisfied themselves on the examination arrangements.

It is not suitable if you need a nationally recognised degree for a regulated profession, further academic study, credit transfer or an immigration application, unless the deciding authority has confirmed in writing that it will accept this specific award.

Sources checked 28 August 2026: dunster.ch · partner listing · accreditations page

Compare Dunster against the other five institutions on fee, awarder, duration and register status in our institution comparison, and read how to check an institution's accreditation before you decide.