37-credit, 12-month Doctorate

[sanantone]

I was just mentioning at Degreeinfo that schools should try to stick to established degree names. There's no reason they couldn't have called this a DHA or executive DHA. Even within the field of healthcare, no one is going to know what DEL means. As a post-nominal, I would have assumed it was a certification. There's been a sudden explosion of novel degree titles, and I wonder what's driving it.

Easier for the school to receive accreditation or state approval for a nontraditional title, in some cases.

SUNY Buffalo State University is applying for its first doctorate, a Doctor of Professional Studies (DPS) in Creativity and Change Leadership. The application was previously submitted as a PhD in Creativity and Change Leadership.

Interesting point to ponder, but this is usually an issue for proposed PhD programs since they have to be research-oriented and have qualified faculty for the research courses and dissertation advising. Some universities just don't have the resources to offer a proper PhD program. 

This shouldn't be an issue for a DHA. It doesn't need a dissertation or research methods and statistics courses. EVMS' DHSc and OSU and VUL's DHAs are proof that you can get away with a lot with those degrees. Somehow, Faulkner got away with offering a 14-month DHSc and a 18-month PhD.