Specializations
By limiting the number of Required Foundations of Management Core Courses in each degree program, the Schulich School provides students with the opportunity to select a significant number of courses from the more than 100 electives it offers. The result is a rich opportunity to select from 19 specializations, including management functions such as finance and marketing; industries or sectors such as financial services, public management, nonprofit management and leadership; or management topics such as international business, entrepreneurial studies, and business and sustainability. Most electives are taken in Year 2 of a degree program. One elective is required in Year 1.
Students are encouraged to specialize in more than one area. Schulich does not, however, require that its graduates specialize. Many students already possess a specialization and find that their on-going careers are enhanced by selecting a wide variety of elective courses that add greater breadth to existing knowledge and skills.
Schulich students have a range of study options. Students may choose to complete a specialization for which MBA students are normally required to complete 12 or more credit-hours of elective courses and students in the MBA/JD, IMBA, and MBA/MA/MFA programs are required to 9 credit hours of elective courses in a particular area of study.
Specialization may also take the form of a degree program such as the International MBA (IMBA), Master of Public Administration (MPA), or MBA/JD; and/or graduate diploma programs in real estate and infrastructure, democratic administration, financial engineering, or arts and media administration, non-profit management and leadership, or justice system administration. Areas with a graduate diploma are indicated with an asterisk (*) in the menu above.
In the MBA Program, there are 27 credit-hours available for electives. This permits a student to choose two areas of specialization. Those who have received waiver with replacement for several of the required courses may be able to focus in more than two areas.
In the IMBA program, students have 21 credit-hours of electives available. This permits one area of specialization in addition to international business which is built into the program. Similarly, the MPA program has a built-in specialization in public management (as well as general management), but its 12 credit-hours of electives permit students to obtain yet another specialization. The MBA/JD and MBA/MA/MFA programs also allow for 12 credit hours of electives enabling students in these programs to pursue one specialization within their Schulich studies.