Growing demand for business leaders with international management skills is the driving force behind a new master of science degree in management at the Richard Ivey School of Business.
For the first time in nearly 50 years, Ivey is introducing a new degree program. In August, the first class of the Ivey MSc program will begin. The one-year program is designed to build upon students’ undergraduate experience and prepare them for international careers.
The program has been approved by The University of Western Ontario Senate and the Richard Ivey School of Business. It recently won approval from the Ontario Council of Graduate Studies.
“We saw a need to develop students who were particularly skilled at the ability to understand, assess and articulate best practices in international management,” says Darren Meister, faculty director of Ivey’s MSc program.
Employers want employees with greater independent research skills, he says, adding the experience develops students’ ability to understand what lies beneath a best practice.
In December of 2009, Ivey was selected as the exclusive Canadian partner in the internationally renowned CEMS alliance, a global alliance of 27 leading business schools.
With this partnership, Ivey MSc students can participate in the master of international management (MIM) program with students from other alliance schools, such as the London School of Economics, HEC Paris, National University of Singapore, ESADE (Spain) and Fundao Getulio Vargas (Brazil). Students register as Ivey MSc students and pursue the CEMS MIM program concurrently.
The CEMS MIM program was ranked the best pre-experience program in the world by the Financial Times. CEMS also provides faculty research groups, PhD exchange opportunities and other collaborative activities.
The Ivey MSc builds on students’ undergraduate experience and provides specialization in the area of international management. It does not require any work experience.
It provides a different educational experience from the MBA program, which is a broad-based professional program that brings in people with a wide variety of undergraduate backgrounds and addresses numerous business topics.
Graduates of the MSc program will likely take on consulting, analyst and specialist roles in business.
“We are seeing significant interests from consulting firms in students with these skills. I also believe that a significant number of students will look at this as a base for doctoral studies at some point in the future,” says Meister.
More than 700 people showed interest in the program when it was first announced in the fall. After the program was approved, offers were mailed to successful applicants.
“We anticipate a very strong first year class which is very gratifying to see,” he says.
Rebecca Risberg, an undergraduate business student at Ivey who has been accepted into the MSc program, says she hopes the international degree will open doors to a future career in Europe.
She’d like to live and work in Europe and has just returned from an exchange at the University of Navarra, Spain.
“The Ivey MSc program fits perfectly into my method of learning,” she says. “Travelling and experiencing new cultures is just as important to me as sitting in a classroom with professional teachers; combining the two makes for an incredible learning experience.
“Not only will I get to network with the right people during the program, but my degree will be well-respected within the European Union and perhaps make me a desirable candidate for European employers.”
For more information on the MSc program visit www.ivey.uwo.ca/msc/.