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Dec 26, 2024
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School of Graduate Studies Calendar, 2023-2024 [-ARCHIVED CALENDAR-]
Business Administration, M.B.A.
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 Return to: DeGroote School of Business
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Master of Business Administration (MBA) Degree
The MBA program at McMaster University was created in 1962, and boasts more than 8300 alumni around the world. The DeGroote School of Business is also AACSB accredited - less than 5% of business schools worldwide earn this distinction in management education.
Canada’s first Co-op MBA program was established at McMaster in 1973, and today is a premier choice for students who want to gain work experience while studying, and for employers who want to hire future business leaders.
Full-time, part-time and accelerated programs are also offered to give students the flexibility they need to continue their education and become leaders in the business world and the community. Classes are held at the Ron Joyce Centre in Burlington, Ontario in a state-of-the-art building designed to enrich the student learning experience.
MBA Program Information
The MBA Program offers a number of program options:
DeGroote MBA (full-time status, 4 academic terms)
DeGroote MBA with Co-op (full-time status, 4 academic terms alternating with 3 paid work terms)
DeGroote Accelerated MBA (10 courses, available full-time or part-time)
DeGroote Blended Learning Part-time Program (9 academic terms, part-time study only)
Students in Year 2 who wish to take graduate courses in other departments of the University as part of their MBA program may do so provided they secure approval from the particular
department concerned and the Manager, Academic (MBA), DeGroote School of Business. Graduate students not registered in the Faculty of Business may enroll in MBA courses only with
the prior approval of the Faculty of Business and their home department. Enquiries should be directed to the Manager, Academic (MBA ).
Specializations
Business Analytics
Business Analytics is a cross-discipline specialization that incorporates descriptive, predictive, and prescriptive analytics courses as well as application courses. The courses make use of relevant analytics software to equip the students with the necessary analytics platforms.
Data analytics has been touted by many industry leaders as the next frontier for innovation and productivity. The employment growth in data analytics is predicted to be the largest among all occupations in Canada. This specialization provides students with a wide variety of career options in analytics with application tracks in Finance, Information Systems, Marketing and Operations.
The Business Analytics specialization serves as a gateway to valuable professional designations such as the INFORMS Certified Analytics Professional (CAP) designation and the SAP Business Integration Certification program.
Highly Recommended Electives
Accounting and Financial Management Services
The Accounting and Financial Management Services Specialization emphasizes the fundamental areas and current issues in financial reporting, including the problems of measurement and reporting to both internal and external users of financial information. Course work is required in the various functional areas of business in Year 1 and the election of further work in finance, economics, information systems, and quantitative methods is strongly encouraged in Year 2.
This specialization provides students with a wide variety of career options. Graduates may pursue careers in financial reporting, public accounting (specializing in auditing and assurance, forensic accounting, taxation), business valuations, or bankruptcy trusteeship. Other career opportunities include management accounting positions in for-profit and not-for-profit business environments as Chief Financial Officers, controllers, financial analysts, and treasury officers responsible for developing reporting and control systems as well as decision support systems within organizations. A specialization in Accounting and Financial Management Services also provides opportunities for access to positions in financial institutions as credit officers and financial specialists as well as opportunities in management consulting in areas requiring financial expertise.
The Accounting and Financial Management Services specialization serves as a gateway to valuable professional financial designations and contains maximal embedded career options. Choosing this specialization enables one to be in a position to qualify for a financial designation such as Chartered Professional Accountant (CPA), Certified Public Accountant (CPA), and Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA).
Finance
The Finance specialization offers a complete range of courses to prepare the student for a career in finance. In Business F650, the introductory course which all MBA students must take, students are introduced to the financial market tools of valuation, market efficiency, arbitrage pricing, contingent claims, and risk-return tradeoffs. On the corporate side, students are introduced to concepts such as cost of capital, capital budgeting, dividend policy, and capital structure. In advanced courses, students deepen their practical understanding through the use of models currently used in financial markets: options, futures and other derivatives, portfolio management, and forecasting and quantitative methods. Students apply concepts in cases, computer simulations, projects, and
market analysis. Among other things, the Specialization is designed to prepare students for the exams required to obtain the Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) and Certified Financial Planner (CFP) designations. The Finance Specialization has been recognized by the CFA Institute as meeting the requirements for membership in its University Recognition Program. At a minimum, students pursuing the CFA designation should take the courses marked with an asterisk (*).
Career opportunities for graduates in finance include employment in the financial services sector, a sector which currently accounts for about one-fifth of the Canadian economy and continues to grow - banks, trusts, management consulting, investment banks, pension funds, mutual funds, real estate, and insurance companies. The financial function in corporations offers opportunities for the finance specialist as well. For more information, students should contact the Finance and Business Economics Area.
General MBA
The General MBA is designed for students who are interested in preparing themselves for positions which require ability to co-ordinate several functional areas of business and other complex organizations. The General MBA might also be considered by those intending to start their own business enterprise as well as by those experienced students who are interested in preparing themselves for advancement to upper management levels.
The General MBA combines a required program of introductory courses in all the functional areas of management with a program of electives offering students considerable freedom to seek a broad education tailored to their individual backgrounds and career interests.
Health Services Management
The competent professional health services manager is a critical element in the framework of effective and efficient delivery of health services. Such individuals need solid management grounding in the fundamentals of planning, operations and evaluation, and a broad orientation to the realities, limitations, and potentialities of our health “system”.
The underlying assumption of this specialization is that a solid MBA training, including selected graduate courses in health services, coupled with a range of work term experiences in the health sector designed with specific educational objectives, will produce a unique graduate with accelerated capabilities in the health services field. The health services management (HSM) specialization also provides the added benefit of preparing students for a career and certification as a Certified Health Executive (CHE), Canada’s only professional credential available to health leaders, under the DeGroote School of Business’ strategic alliance with the Canadian College of Health Service Executives (CCHSE).
For those who choose Co-op, the work-study nature of the MBA co-op program is an excellent educational format. The three work terms provide a 12-month “residency” training period as an integral part of the total educational experience. To the extent possible, the work term sites and activities are based on the student’s interests and needs. During each work term, the student receives on-the-job training under the guidance of a supervisor (preceptor) from the work setting. MBA co-op work terms in the Canadian health services management field can
be credited towards the CHE practical experience requirement.
This specialization provides students a fast-track opportunity to earn the MBA degree and CHE designation. Students who enroll in the strategic alliance must complete the CHE program requirements within three years from the date of enrollment.
For more information, please visit http://www.cchl-ccls.ca/
This specialization is also available to students in the Accelerated Program provided they have a minimum of 1-year work experience in the Health Care industry at the time of their application.
Strategic Business Valuation
Students in the Strategic Business Valuation (SBV) specialization who successfully complete V700 (Strategic Business Valuation) and V704 (Advanced Strategic Business Valuation) will be exempt from taking the Level I and Level II Canadian Institute of Chartered Business Valuators (CICBV) courses (two of six required courses) for earning the CBV designation, as long as they pass the corresponding CICBV exams before the end of the third calendar year after completing V700 and V704.
Students in the Strategic Business Valuation specialization learn best practices for business valuation through a unique interdisciplinary approach using a blend of finance, economics, and accounting principles which include: investigative techniques to identify the drivers of value in an enterprise; case analysis and class discussion; and panel discussions with industry experts. They are exposed to valuation models and analytical techniques that value a business, including both tangible and intangible assets, drawing upon both traditional valuation techniques and newer, more contemporary approaches. The purpose is to accurately and exhaustively profile firms to identify those that meet rigorous standards of excellence and growth and to develop strategies for further value enhancement and preservation.
The underlying philosophy of this whole-business approach is that wise investments are made for the long run rather than for quick returns through rapid buying and selling. This approach requires the identification of firms for investment which have enduring financial health and growth. Such long-term potential can only be assessed through a complete analysis of the firm and the drivers of value.
The pedagogy in the specialization stresses the use of conceptual/theoretical material in analyses that have practical value in solving the kinds of problems and making the kinds of decisions that are encountered in the workplace. Graduates are thus prepared to enter unique positions in, business valuation, credit analysis, consulting, and corporate management, and are well prepared to assume positions of responsibility relatively quickly.
Strategic Marketing
Marketing is the activity, set of institutions, and processes for creating, communicating, delivering, and exchanging offerings that have value for customers, clients, partners, and society at large. Professional marketers act in a forward looking manner to create, maintain, and enhance relationships among different stakeholders to facilitate such exchanges. Highly successful marketers understand both the quantitative (e.g. economics) as well as the qualitative (e.g. psychology, sociology and politics) aspects of customer behaviour in consumer and business
markets.
The Strategic Marketing Specialization provides MBA students a diverse selection of courses to develop the broad understanding of the fundamental concepts, theories and applications needed to be a successful marketer. Integrated experiential learning is an important part of this education. This is achieved via projects with local and national businesses, cases, research projects, and marketing simulations.
Graduates in this specialization are well prepared for careers in marketing management, new product marketing, brand management, services marketing, marketing analytics, marketing research, retailing, sales, advertising, promotion etc. Students are provided with the education and experience to become highly successful in both consumer and business marketing professions as well as to effectively operate in domestic and international markets.
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Return to: DeGroote School of Business
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