Curriculum

Your MBA

Seamlessly integrating classroom and real-world experiences, the DeGroote MBA addresses industry needs and opportunities. With a focus on hands-on learning in a supportive and inclusive environment, our MBA students build critical thinking and collaborative groups skills as they work through the program.

Core Curriculum

An integrated series of core business concepts you need to know as you complete your MBA.

In your first term you will be introduced to core business concepts.  In term 2 you are required to take Accounting and Finance but will have the opportunity to choose three from the following 5 courses (see Term 2 Chart below).

Term 1
Managing Financial Resources
Economics and Business Statistics
Creating Customer Value
Competing through Digital Transformation and Analytics
Managing Organizations
Term 2
Marketing
Human Resources / Organizational Behaviour
Health Services Management
Information Systems
Operations Management
Term 3 and 4
Allows you to customize your academic experience to meet your career goals. See below to see specializations.
Integrated Learning Project

The Integrated Learning Project

You will complete a final project in your first year. Integrating and applying your knowledge to solve a real business problem, you will act as a consultant as you put your skills and abilities to the test.

Specializations

In your first year as a DeGroote student, we provide you with the foundation of a strong business education. You may come from a science, engineering, history or political science background, and we want to ensure you develop and understand the key concepts of business. That’s why we begin with our Foundations module to help build your business acumen, and further explore that in your first year as we teach you the core business concepts you need to complete your MBA. You will declare your specialization in your second year.

The general track combines introductory courses in all the functional areas of management with electives. This provides students the opportunity to design a broad course of study, tailored to their individual backgrounds and interests.

The Accounting and Financial Management Services specialization is a gateway to valuable professional financial designations and can lead to a number of different careers.

Completing this specialization helps you work toward earning financial designations such as Chartered Professional Accountant (CPA) and Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA).

Business Analytics is a cross-discipline specialization that incorporates descriptive, predictive and prescriptive analytics courses as well as application courses. Most of the courses will make use of relevant analytics software to equip the students with the necessary analytics platforms.

Many industry leaders have touted data analytics 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 the area of business analytics with three application tracks in finance, marketing and operations.

The Business Analytics specialization serves as a gateway to valuable professional designations such as INFORMS Certified Analytics Professional (CAP) designation as well as the SAP Business Integration Certification program.

The Finance specialization introduces you to the theory and practice of modern financial decision-making by both firms and investors. Following an introductory course on financial management, you will learn how to:

  • price options, futures and other derivatives.
  • utilize portfolio management tools.
  • apply economic and quantitative analysis to financial problem solving.
  • apply these concepts in cases, computer simulations, projects, and market analysis.

The courses in this specialization are also designed to prepare you for the Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) and Certified Financial Planner (CFP)designation exams. The Finance Specialization has been recognized by the CFA Institute for membership in its University Recognition Program. This status is granted to institutions whose degree programs incorporate at least 70 percent of the CFA Program Candidate Body of Knowledge (CBOK).

The Health Services Management (HSM) specialization of the MBA program is designed to provide future managers with a 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 HSM specialization also provides students advanced standing towards earning their Certified Health Executive (CHE) designation, Canada’s only professional credential available to health leaders, under the DeGroote School of Business’ alliance with the Canadian College of Health Leaders (CCHL). Students who enroll in the strategic alliance must complete the CHE program requirements within three years from the date of enrolment.

Highly successful marketers understand both the quantitative as well as the qualitative 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.

Graduates in this specialization are well prepared for careers in marketing management, new product marketing, brand management, services marketing, 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 situations as well as to effectively operate in domestic and international markets.

Students in this specialization are the next generation of valuation professionals.

Students learn best practices for business valuation through a unique interdisciplinary approach using a blend of finance, economics, and accounting principles. This includes: investigative techniques to identify the drivers of value in an enterprise; case analysis and class discussion; and panel discussions with industry experts.

Integrated Learning Project