Medical school taught Fawaz Siddiqi how to cut open a human skull and to understand the intricacies of the human anatomy. But when he began his residency four years ago as a neurosurgical physician at the London Health Sciences Centre in London, Ont., he wished he had also learned how to deal with the business of running a ward.
"When I am working at the hospital I'm responsible not only for junior residents but also with things like bed management and dealing with a shortage of resources in the ward," says Dr. Siddiqi.
"Doctors tend to be very adept at dealing with patients and disease but not with the tools necessary to administer health care delivery," he says.
So when he heard about a master of business administration (MBA) program that would allow students to focus on health sector studies in the final year, Dr. Siddiqi grabbed his pen and applied to the University of Western Ontario's Richard Ivey School of Business.
Today, he can talk about pharmaco-economics, health-sector politics and intellectual property and licensing as fluently as he speaks the language of medicine.
"I wish I had even a tenth of these courses when I was in medical school," he says. "This program has really opened my eyes and given me the tools for health care administration."
Mr. Siddiqi is among a growing number of MBA students in Canada who are earning brownie points by either streaming their business studies toward a particular industry, or pursuing a joint degree in a field such as engineering or library and information sciences.
While there are no statistics in Canada that track enrolment in these so-called niche or specialized MBA programs, many business schools are reporting more students in their classrooms.
At Concordia University's John Molson School of Business, for instance, more than 70 students are enrolled in the Master of Investment Management program, which allows students to pursue a chartered financial analyst designation while earning an MBA. It's administered by the school's Goodman Institute of Investment Management.
"Our first class in 2001 probably had about 20 students," says Ian Rakita, Goodman's director. "By next year, we expect to have close to 90 students."
Niche MBAs are nothing new, says Peter Simon, a consultant at the Toronto executive search firm Spencer Stuart Inc.
As examples, he cites the health care MBA program at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, and the manufacturing-focused MBA at the MIT Sloan School of Management, part of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. "These programs have been around for about 20 years," says Mr. Simon.
But while niche MBAs aren't novel, they're attracting more attention because of their growing numbers.
Toronto's York University alone has 18 specializations in its Schulich School of Business MBA program. These specializations run the gamut, from arts and media to property development.
"At least six of these programs were developed only in the last eight years," says Charmaine Courtis, Schulich's executive director of student services and international relations. "Most recently, we introduced a health industry management program."
The University of Alberta School of Business in Edmonton has nine niche MBAs, while the University of Toronto's Joseph L. Rotman School of Management has 11.
Mr. Rakita says the proliferation of MBA graduates in recent years has diminished the value of an MBA in the eyes of some employers.
By providing coursework tailored to a particular industry -- and in some cases even to a particular career path within an industry -- niche MBAs are giving their graduates an edge. "Our students, for example, are coming out with two of the most widely sought after designations in the investment industry -- a CFA and an MBA," says Mr. Rakita. "And that gives them a leg up when competing for positions or when they want to move up in their organization."
