Standing at the front of a classroom on the fifth floor of the TD Centre's Ernst & Young Tower, Andr deCarufel holds up his hands.
He could be a traffic cop telling oncoming vehicles to stop, but for the dress pants and polo shirt, and the fact that he's standing in front of seven of Bay Street's finest, a crew of sharp-dressed men and women who have surrendered their lunch breaks to be here. DeCarufel is head of the executive MBA program run jointly by York University's Schulich School of Business and Northwestern University's Kellogg School of Management, and he's in mid-sales pitch.
He runs the Kellogg Schulich info-session with the slick enthusiasm of an infomercial host. Pertinent details get dispensed among a patois of bons mots, puns and winceworthy jokes. Among the relevant facts: The Kellogg Schulich EMBA takes in a maximum of 50 people each January, lasts 18 months and costs $85,000. "The E in the degree stands for the kind of people we're looking for--executives," he quips. "Although some students think it stands for 'expensive.'"
DeCarufel does his best to be reassuring. Business math? "Don't worry," he says. "We'll teach you all you need to know." Research material? "There's no going to the bookstore," he says. "You get a package of all the stuff you need before the start of the program." What about laptops? "We give those to you."
Then comes a pause and his hands go up. "I'll confess that this isn't my favourite part of the presentation," he says, "because it sounds a little like bragging." Another pause, to let the line sink in, and then deCarufel proceeds to extol the virtues of Schulich's partner, the Chicago-based Kellogg School, which perpetually finishes in the top tier of b-schools, particularly in marketing.
If deCarufel sounds like a natural born salesman, that's because he makes this pitch about 50 times a year. These 90-minute info-sessions may or may not be valuable to prospective students, but they are critical to the university. Thanks to an explosion in the number of EMBA programs in the 1990s, the field has become the most competitive in business education. In Toronto, the hottest Canadian market, executives can choose among nine programs provided by eight different schools. In any given week, there are probably six EMBA info-sessions being held in the Greater Toronto Area.
EMBAs have themselves become a big business, and they're facing a classic predicament: too many schools chasing the same customers. So, every school needs an angle. Schulich touts the prestige of its joint program with Kellogg and its international partners in Hong Kong, Germany and Israel. At a Queen's University session, professor Salman Mufti emphasizes his school's convenience and the fact that the student body comprises a "nationwide network of experienced managers." His video presentation tackles the pertinent question of return on investment (ROI) head-on: A PowerPoint slide proclaims that within six months of graduation, 71% of Queen's EMBA grads get a raise.
On the University of Toronto's downtown campus, the Rotman School actually conducts a series of mini-classes--complete with case studies--each followed by a Q&A session with a recent graduate. The message? Their one-year program is so streamlined, so bursting with content, you're learning before you even apply. The school is cagey on the ROI issue. Fielding the inevitable question, student James MacQueen, VP of corporate development with funeral-home operator Alderwoods Group Inc., who's there to help with the pitch, turns the question around: "Can you measure confidence? Can you measure the value you add to a business concept?" Every school tries to stay on trend. Old buzzwords like e-business have been replaced by discussions of corporate social responsibility. Because of the accreditation requirements needed for a program to qualify as an MBA, there's not much room for variety in the core curricula of finance, marketing and accounting classes. So schools try to differentiate themselves in other ways, with value-added services like career coaching or an alumni-mentorship program or with good old-fashioned perks.
Competition has transformed this formerly sleepy market into a crucible of innovation. "People are experimenting with new ways of delivery, or seeking to expand outside their traditional geographical catchment area. Some are teaming up with Asian or European schools, or starting their own global programs," says Maury Kalnitz, managing director of The Executive MBA Council, a California-based international association of business schools. "Many programs are looking for their niche." That presents its own challenges, however. Surveying the state of the Toronto market, Richard Ivey School of Business program director Michael Pearce offers a somewhat grim assessment: "Crowded is a great word to describe this market--crowded, mature, fragmented and confusing."
The University of Chicago's Graduate School of Business introduced the first executive MBA in 1943 in response to the professional brain drain caused by the Second World War; American companies needed a quick way to train replacements for the executives who had left to run the military. The EMBA outlasted the war because it allowed companies to groom managers for the executive suite without losing them for two years to the classroom. Instead, they could study part-time, attending classes on evenings, Fridays and weekends.
Canada's first executive MBA program came a quarter-century later, in 1968, at Burnaby, B.C.'s Simon Fraser University. The University of Toronto, the University of Quebec at Montreal and Concordia followed suit in the 1980s, but Canada's EMBA landscape remained fairly arid until the early 1990s, when the number of programs more than doubled, from five to 11. The late-'90s economic boom saw demand jump and tuition fees rise to match. In 1998, Rotman's fee for its 20-month program was $49,000. Today, the school's most popular program for executives will cost incoming students $75,000, consistent with Queen's $75,000, Ivey's $75,000 and Kellogg Schulich's $85,000. (By contrast, a regular MBA at, say, Ivey, costs $28,000.) Although Toronto-area programs remain the most expensive in Canada, their tuitions are downright reasonable compared with prestigious schools in the U.S. like Wharton's San Francisco program, which costs $167,000 (Canadian).
"Executive education is a multimillion-dollar business in this country," says Bill Blake, associate dean of MBA programs at Queen's School of Business. "And the bigger schools derive a significant portion of their operating income from it." Blake won't disclose his school's numbers, but a few quick calculations reveal just how significant. Queen's EMBA class of 2004 counted 166 people, each of whom paid tuition of $68,000. That's about $11.3 million in revenue, well above the total from the school's two standard MBA programs, which bring in about $8.25 million.
Revenue is not the only attraction. "If you have significant executive development--regardless of whether it's for an MBA degree--then your faculty is interacting regularly with the seasoned managers of the business world," says Blake. EMBA professors can learn from their students, who are immersed in market trends as they happen. And, of course, a well-run executive-development component bolsters an institution's reputation, which helps with fundraising.
The profit margins aren't always huge. "These programs are seen as cash cows," says Dalhousie faculty of management dean Abol Jalilvand, whose school runs a distance-education MBA for those who work in financial services. "That's not always the case. The students require a lot of handholding. They have unconventional demands, and if they're paying $50,000, then they expect a [high]level of service." For example, many executive students expect tedious activities like photocopying or library drudgework to be done for them. In addition to expensive professors, marketing costs a bundle too. "Pick up the newspaper," suggests Schulich's deCarufel. "Those big ads [can]cost $10,000 a pop." The biggest challenge these days is getting students in the door. Post-boom economic hiccups have steadily lowered the number of execs having their way fully paid by their companies. Two years ago, 48% of Rotman's executive MBA class was on the company dime; only 20% of the current class enjoy the privilege of full sponsorship. An average of 43% of students at Ivey, Queen's, Rotman and Schulich are footing the entire bill themselves. At most schools, enrolment is either flat or down. "We have seen our numbers decline this year. No question. And that's happening with programs across Canada," says Lindsay Redpath, acting director of Athabasca University's Centre for Innovative Management. Athabasca admitted 303 new students in 2004, down from 385 two years ago.
The 2004 executive program enrolment at Queen's is 66% of what it was in 2001. Ivey has made significant cuts to its offering--scrapping its videoconferencing and downtown Toronto programs--to the point where its 2004 total class size is 63% of its 2001 level. Canada's tech capital may have been hit the hardest. The University of Ottawa won't release current enrolment numbers, but even assuming maximum capacity, enrolment will be less than half its 1999 boom-year level of 197 students.
Meanwhile, the competition keeps heating up: Twelve Canadian universities now market EMBA programs, with Montreal's cole des hautes tudes commerciales primed to join them in January, 2006. That figure doesn't count hybrid, alternative or specialized programs, such as the "executive-style" MBA3 at McGill, or Dalhousie's MBA (Financial Services).
In the face of all that, the business schools have had to scramble to differentiate. The biggest single change has been in program delivery. The old standard executive MBA format saw students attend classes every other Friday and Saturday for about two years, including summer vacations. The more innovative schools are moving away from that model. Following the lead of Athabasca University, which introduced the first EMBA that was almost completely on-line in 1994 , some schools now dispense with the fortnightly in-person component; instead, students do most of their course work through the internet, with in-person attendance limited to intense, once-per-semester seminars that can last up to two weeks. This summer, the Rotman school introduced a global twist to on-line delivery: The seminars for its Omnium Global EMBA are held at four different universities on four continents.
A host of program directors have excised vacations from their programs to allow students to complete their degrees more quickly. Queen's recently cut its program duration from 22 to 15 months; Ivey, from 24 to 16. The cohort that left Rotman in October will be the third to complete that school's 13-month MBA for executives. "Time commitment was a key determination in my decision to go to Rotman," says recent graduate Sharon Mathers, vice-president of investor relations for MDS Inc. "Two years seemed like an awfully long time. The idea of 13 months was more manageable."
Gurjit Gill, president of Exotique Expeditions, a travel company specializing in Asian and African tours, is spending his Friday afternoon talking to a television. He's in a windowless conference room in the basement of Toronto's HydroOne building. The room is adorned with two marker-boards and a plastic plant; Aeron chairs and new laptops are the only concessions to luxury. Gill and his classmates, a mishmash of entrepreneurs, lawyers, engineers, accountants and middle managers, are dressed less business than casual: sneakers, jeans and T-shirts, and the odd sports jacket. They're seated around a U-shaped arrangement of tables, in the centre of which are two televisions, one showing finance professor Tom Anger and the other showing a slide of the problem he's trying to explain.
This is one of the more innovative takes on distance education, a classroom for Queen's EMBA program, which networks students in more than a dozen classrooms across the country with the help of cameras and broadband data transmission.
"So how many of us understand this property case?" Anger asks from the TV screen. Gill and his fellow students--as well as his classmates in similarly spartan boardrooms in such locales as Mississauga, Scarborough, Montreal, Hamilton and Calgary--each punch a button on the keypads before them. Seconds later, a bar graph appears on screen showing that 50 out of 65 students understood the case. Anger pauses and the TV picture changes, courtesy of cameras set in each of the 15 classrooms around Canada, to display people with questions. Then it's on to the next topic.
"After the first or second class, you don't notice it's anything but a regular class," says Gill, 40, of videoconference learning. "The fact it's on screen? We get used to it." Gill believes he's getting his money's worth. At up to 30 hours a week, the workload's bigger than he expected, but he believes that what he's learned has already helped his tourism company. "It's a major commitment, but it's worth every minute of it," he says.
That aside, Gill is one of a growing number of executive MBA customers who believe there may be a downside to the latest round of innovation--that as program duration shrinks, substance gets cut. Gill belongs to the final Queen's class whose program will last 22 months; those following will study for only 15. Gill says he needed the extra time to complete the course load because he works full-time. To cut seven months from its program, Queen's eliminated most of its vacation time, as well as a global business project that, in Gill's case, saw his team travel to Tanzania to help create self-sustaining economies for African villages. Because the project is getting cut, Gill says the next class might study global business, "but they won't actually be doing it." Such issues may explain some of the cynicism that surrounds these programs. "Executive MBAs have often been viewed as a watered-down version of regular MBAs," says Dalhousie's Jalilvand. "The market perception is that it's not as rigorous." Or as one recent grad says: "What did I get out of my executive MBA education? Three letters: M-B-A." The other danger is that schools are asking their students to process too much information in too little time. "I was teaching in the late '80s, and back then, the idea of a one-year MBA would have been heresy," says Stephen Long, the acting dean of Royal Roads University's School of Business. Ivey's Pearce admits to similar concerns, saying, "You can't ask people to drink from a firehose." The danger with both possibilities is that the MBA, as a degree, could lose the cachet that made it worth taking. Nancy Lum-Wilson is a 40-year-old pharmaceutical consultant in her second year at Ivey. Like Gill, she belongs to the last class of her school's longer program. "It worries me when I see this sort of thing happening," she says. "Just taking the MBA and shortening, shortening and shortening it. I worry about it devaluing the MBA in the future. In the old days, when someone had an MBA you knew right away that there was a lot of work behind it, whereas now you don't know anymore because you hear it advertised everywhere: Just hurry up and get those three letters behind your name. It's an investment for me, and if it gets commodified, it's going to devalue my investment." Corporate HR departments have also taken notice of the compressed programs. Their companies are investing in the student, not the degree, so their concern is the risk of an underdeveloped executive. "Given that most EMBA programs are structured around a fixed curriculum, a shorter program runs the risk of not covering off knowledge gaps for a given student," says Hugh MacDonald, vice-president of HR operations and knowledge management at CIBC. "One of the advantages of longer, part-time programs is that the student has more flexibility to add the courses she needs to the core program. I'd hate to see EMBA programs shortened to the point where one size is expected to fit all."
"There's no question we're under pressure from some of our competitors to cut the amount of time it takes [to get the degree]" says Vern Jones, academic director of the University of Alberta/Haskayne EMBA Program, which lasts 20 months. "But the alumni wouldn't be happy about it. They don't want us cutting corners. [And]we'd prefer that people take their time to process what we're teaching them. Real learning takes time." Jones likes the fact that Alberta/ Haskayne students get a summer holiday, allowing them a decompression period to prepare for an intense second year. "[Shortening your program]is a difficult call," says Ivey's Pearce, "because on one hand, the market says, 'Give it to me fast,' but at the same time, it says, 'Give it to me effectively.'" Still, such debate shouldn't obscure the value that an executive MBA holds for most who take it. Count Victoria publishing executive Karl-Eric Briere, who completed the Wharton EMBA program in May, 2004, among the satisfied customers. His two-year program was tough, he says. His wife pointed out that the tuition--then $114,000 (U.S.)--might have made a nice down payment on a house, even if he paid only two-thirds of it himself. Then there were the 20 hours of homework he had each week, plus the added inconvenience of regular flights to and from Philadelphia.
But even taking into account the inconvenience, Briere describes his experience in almost spiritual terms. "I learned a lot of life lessons," he says. When he began at Wharton, he was the director of operations at Montreal's Tormont Publications, a children's book publisher. Nine months into the EMBA program, he founded his own company, Simple Dream Publishing. It's doing well, he says, and he credits his part-time foray into academia with providing him with the self-confidence to do it. Was Wharton worth it? "Absolutely," he says, echoing the feelings of many executive MBA students. "It changed the way I regard the world. ...The whole experience was a propitious time to have a deeper self-assessment of life."
PERKS
Laptops, catered lunches and trips to Singapore have become so common that EMBA programs lacking them are considered no-frills. How does a school seduce execs these days? With perks--and below are some of the best, from both sides of the border.
The Five-Star Dorm
Wharton's busy schedule of executive-education programs often means the University of Pennsylvania's executive residences are booked up--leaving the school's EMBA students with no rooms on-campus. When that happens, Wharton billets its students in nearby luxury accommodations like the Four Seasons in Philadelphia, where they can sample the sauted American foie gras with grilled pineapple and spicy macadamia nuts at the AAA Five Diamond-rated Fountain Restaurant (voted one of the city's three best in Zagat's 2003 reader's survey).
They could also drop by the spa for a 25-minute Sumatra Coconut Body Polish. Recent Wharton EMBA graduate Karl-Eric Briere stayed in the luxury lodgings about a dozen times in two years, but his attitude remains very businesslike. "The hotels are nice," says Briere. "But because I wanted to be close to my classmates, I always preferred to stay on campus."
Couples Therapy
The rigours of an EMBA can wreak havoc on married life, so Ivey holds a Partners Day during the first week of residency, where significant others participate in a full-case discussion class. (This year's case--the organizational behaviour challenge: "The Atchison Corp.") Other schools, such as the University of Ottawa and Sobey School of Business, encourage household harmony through annual golf tournaments, Christmas parties and, in the case of Sobey, a formal banquet at the members-only Halifax Club.
A Concierge
To keep its students focused on learning, staff at Queen's Donald Gordon Conference Centre handles all trivial annoyances--such as buying pencils or making photocopies--and troubleshoots bigger ones. One extra-tall student complained that he couldn't sleep in his standard-length residence bunk. By evening, a longer bed was in place. "Concierges [are]what they amount to," says Laurie Ross, the faculty's manager of external relations. "They're there to make sure the students don't have to worry about anything." Except for accounting class, of course.
How About a Golf Pro?
Starting this year, students in Rotman's One-Year MBA for Executives each get their own "coach"--a consultant from Colorado's Lore International Institute who works one-on-one on a student's leadership skills. First, the student solicits feedback on their interpersonal skills from business clients, friends and co-workers. Coach and student then tackle the problem areas: Staff thinks you're too bossy? Work on switching orders into requests. "It will change a person's personality," says Beatrix Dart, Rotman's academic director of executive MBA programs. "You can change lots of little things, and those little things can be important." Long putts, unfortunately, don't fall under the coach's purview.
Thinner Fat Cats
Baylor University is so serious about its holistic approach to developing managers that its EMBA program is actually housed at the Cooper Aerobics Center in Dallas. Founded by the father of aerobics, Dr. Kenneth Cooper, the 30-acre health-and-fitness complex integrates sessions on wellness, dining out and cardiovascular health into the overall curriculum--though executives luckily aren't graded on their resting heart rate. Students are also given a comprehensive stress test that Baylor boasts saved at least one life last semester.
A New Job
Career counselling is a hot topic among EMBA program heads. Still, services for execs lag behind those offered to their traditional MBA counterparts.
The Johnson Graduate School of Business at Cornell, for example, jets in major-market corporate recruiters to size up its upcoming MBA grads. The challenge for EMBA schools: How to provide these services without ticking off the corporate sugar daddies of fully sponsored students? New York University's Stern School of Business has figured out part of the solution: It recently opened a Career Center for Working Professionals offering services such as individual counselling, resum referral services and networking events tailored to "eligible" executive MBA students and alumni. The next step? B-schools are buzzing about partnering with executive search firms.
Bread winners
Most schools say they don't track their students' salaries. Of those that do, the biggest gap between the haves and the have-mores is in Quebec, where the typical University of Sherbrooke student boasts an incoming salary of $94,000, while a student at the University of Quebec at Montreal settles for $65,000. Sobey's Haligonian executives rake in $89,000, the University of Ottawa's bureaucrats and technopreneurs make $79,138 and Athabasca's on-line scholars earn $72,526. Outgoing salary may be more revealing of a degree's market value. Athabasca students saw a 28% increase by graduation, while Sobey and UQaM saw 20% and 22% jumps, respectively. The University of Ottawa, meanwhile, reports that its grads enjoyed a 33% increase within a year of donning the gown, and a healthy 55% within three years.
BRAGGING RIGHTS
Shortest program! Best profs! Most industry cachet! Despite the best efforts of EMBA schools, at some point all of their sales pitches blend into the same murky soup of "faster, smarter, more prestigious." For better or worse, these programs do stand out:
Best Bang for Your Buck
The thought of shelling out $85,000 for a degree can make a frugal executive weep. There are better deals out there, but if you want to attend the country's most economical EMBA program, you'll need to be comfortable in the language of love. The three-year program at University of Quebec at Montreal (UQa+M) costs $4,862 ($11,421 for non-Quebec residents) and--desol, anglophones--it's taught exclusively in French.
Best Simulation
Rotman's week-long mergers-and-acquisitions module for its one-year program has become legendary among students. Bay Street investment bankers advise students during a nerve-wracking week-long ordeal that includes the late nights, side deals and ego clashes of actual M&A scenarios. This year's exercise involved three potential suitors for Shopper's Drug Mart; negotiations with the leading candidate, Walgreen's, broke down and the company's managers snapped up the retailer in a leveraged buyout.
"It got pretty intense," says student Kim Mason, a sales and marketing manager for RBC. "Calling it a simulation doesn't give it credit."
Most Flexible Locations
Queen's nationwide EMBA program maintains nodes, or classrooms, in about 15 cities that connect through videoconferencing with professors at the school's Kingston campus. Most of them are where you'd expect--Toronto, Calgary, Vancouver. But they also hit smaller centres like Hamilton and Saint John, and over the years they've accommodated demand in some curious places. In the past, they've set up a classroom in Bermuda, and they're currently operating a node in that buzzing hive of international commerce, Fort McMurray, Alta. (population: 56,000). "We'll put a classroom wherever we get enough interest," says Bill Blake, Queen's associate dean of MBA programs.
Biggest Ratings Monster
While other schools alternately weep and rejoice with each year's results, Ivey's exec program remains a giant killer. In the past three years, it has placed 12th (2003), 11th (2002) and 15th (2001) in the influential Financial Times ranking (though it recently dropped from 15th to 25th on the Business Week survey), tops among Canadian schools and, for 2003, above such highly regarded U.S. programs as UCLA and Purdue. Rankings are partly weighted on extensive student surveys, so Ivey's dominance suggests that a) it's meeting students' expectations and/or b) Ivey students enjoy filling out surveys.
Most Repentant Professor
After a recent lecture to a class at York University's Joint Kellogg Schulich program, Dr. Lakshman Krishnamurthi, the chair of Kellogg's number-one-ranked Marketing department, was dissatisfied with his performance. So a few days later, he e-mailed the class a four-page letter, apologizing and reviewing the lesson. In other words, Kellogg profs don't dial it in. One byproduct, according to Kellogg Schulich executive director Andr deCarufel, is that Schulich's own professors raise the level of their game.
Prettiest Brochure
Instead of hawking its 13-month program with a full-colour glossy, Rotman offers an 18-page treatise on management entitled The Origin of Leaders or, Natural Selection as it Applies to Prospective Students of the Rotman One-Year MBA for Executives. Prefaced with a quote from Darwin, the bound volume nestles its sales pitch under such headings as "The Benefits of Swiftness" (accompanied by an etching of a fox) and "Top of the Food Chain" (a lion, of course). The whimsical approach has other program heads drooling. "It didn't look like an MBA brochure at all--it was a lot more clever," says Diane Cross, executive director of Simon Fraser's executive program.
FLYING BUSINESS CLASS
The whole point of EMBAs may be to make learning more convenient and less time consuming, but that doesn't mean students will pass up a foreign getaway. Simon Fraser students can take an international business course on "Italy and the 2006 Winter Olympics" that includes a trip to Milan and Turin. It's a timely topic for Vancouver, the site of the 2010 Games. "There's all this hype around the Games, and this will allow us to see what they mean for the average business," says program director Diane Cross. At Alberta/Haskayne, meanwhile, a class vote has led to treks through Brussels, Prague and Amsterdam.
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
SCHOOL/PROGRAM: Simon Fraser University
EMBA
Burnaby, B.C.
DURATION: 24 mos.
TUITION (NEXT COHORT): $45,000
IN-PERSON REQUIREMENTS: Alternate Fridays and Saturdays, international study trip
CLASS SIZE (2004): 24
LEADING AREAS OF STUDY: Leadership change, general management, strategic analysis
AVERAGE STUDENT AGE/WORK EXPERIENCE: 37/10-12 years
% FEMALE STUDENTS: 33
% FACULTY WITH 5 YEARS CORPORATE EXPERIENCE: 90
TEACHING METHODS (% CASE STUDY, % TEAM PROJECT, % LECTURE): 20/35/30, with 15 for individual projects
MAJOR INTERNATIONAL AFFILIATES/PARTNERSHIPS: None
MAJOR CORPORATE CUSTOMERS: No dominant firm
SECTORS CONTRIBUTING LARGEST % OF STUDENTS: High-tech, financial services, consulting
% OF STUDENTS SELF-FUNDED, PARTLY FUNDED, FULLY FUNDED: 30/40/30
SCHOOL/PROGRAM: Athabasca University
Centre for Innovative
Management EMBA
St. Albert, Alta.
DURATION: 28-30 mos.
TUITION (NEXT COHORT): $38,500
IN-PERSON REQUIREMENTS: Distance e-learning with one-week residential requirement
CLASS SIZE (2004): 348, in three cohorts
LEADING AREAS OF STUDY: Project, IT and strategic management
AVERAGE STUDENT AGE/WORK EXPERIENCE: 40/14 years
% FEMALE STUDENTS: 31
% FACULTY WITH 5 YEARS CORPORATE EXPERIENCE: 92
TEACHING METHODS (% CASE STUDY, % TEAM PROJECT, % LECTURE): On-line learning
MAJOR INTERNATIONAL AFFILIATES/PARTNERSHIPS: None
MAJOR CORPORATE CUSTOMERS: RBC Financial Group, Telus, Bell Canada, DaimlerChrysler, National Defence and Canadian Froces, CIBC
SECTORS CONTRIBUTING LARGEST % OF STUDENTS: Manufacturing
% OF STUDENTS SELF-FUNDED, PARTLY FUNDED, FULLY FUNDED: 38/36/26
SCHOOL/PROGRAM: Alberta/Haskayne EMBA
University of Alberta,
Edmonton and University of Calgary
DURATION: 20 mos.
TUITION (NEXT COHORT): $55,000
IN-PERSON REQUIREMENTS: Three weeks on site, plus 32 alternate Friday and Saturdays, international study trip
CLASS SIZE (2004): 40
LEADING AREAS OF STUDY: Strategy, leadership, globalization, venture creation
AVERAGE STUDENT AGE/WORK EXPERIENCE: 41/18 years
% FEMALE STUDENTS: 25
% FACULTY WITH 5 YEARS CORPORATE EXPERIENCE: 75
TEACHING METHODS (% CASE STUDY, % TEAM PROJECT, % LECTURE): 40/40/20
MAJOR INTERNATIONAL AFFILIATES/PARTNERSHIPS: None
MAJOR CORPORATE CUSTOMERS: Telus, Bantrel, Enmax, City of Calgay
SECTORS CONTRIBUTING LARGEST % OF STUDENTS: Energy, public sector, financial services, high-tech
% OF STUDENTS SELF-FUNDED, PARTLY FUNDED, FULLY FUNDED: 20/50/30
SCHOOL/PROGRAM: Richard Ivey School
of Business EMBA
University of Western Ontario
London, Ont.
DURATION: 16 mox.
TUITION (NEXT COHORT): $75,000
IN-PERSON REQUIREMENTS: Continental: four days per month, international study trip Mississauga: Fridays and Saturdays every other week, international study trip
CLASS SIZE (2004): Continental: 45, Mississauga: 40
LEADING AREAS OF STUDY: General management
AVERAGE STUDENT AGE/WORK EXPERIENCE: 36/13 years
% FEMALE STUDENTS: 25
% FACULTY WITH 5 YEARS CORPORATE EXPERIENCE: 82
TEACHING METHODS (% CASE STUDY, % TEAM PROJECT, % LECTURE): 75/75/10
MAJOR INTERNATIONAL AFFILIATES/PARTNERSHIPS: IPADE Business School (Mexico City), Tsinghua University (Beijing), Fudan University (Shanghai)
MAJOR CORPORATE CUSTOMERS: N/A
SECTORS CONTRIBUTING LARGEST % OF STUDENTS: N/A
% OF STUDENTS SELF-FUNDED, PARTLY FUNDED, FULLY FUNDED: 39/24/37
SCHOOL/PROGRAM: Joint Kellogg Schulich
EMBA
York University, Toronto
DURATION: 18 mos.
TUITION (NEXT COHORT): $85,000
IN-PERSON REQUIREMENTS: Year 1: one-week residency, 15 weekends. Year 2: two-week residency, 10 weekends, international study trip
CLASS SIZE (2004): 40
LEADING AREAS OF STUDY: Global leadership, strategic management
AVERAGE STUDENT AGE/WORK EXPERIENCE: 38/13 years
% FEMALE STUDENTS: 30
% FACULTY WITH 5 YEARS CORPORATE EXPERIENCE: 58
TEACHING METHODS (% CASE STUDY, % TEAM PROJECT, % LECTURE): 40/30/30
MAJOR INTERNATIONAL AFFILIATES/PARTNERSHIPS: Kellogg School of Management (Northwestern University), Leon Recanati School (Tel Aviv), Otto Beisheim School (Germany), Hong Kong University
MAJOR CORPORATE CUSTOMERS: CIBC, Scotiabak, Weyerhaeuser, Proctor & Gamble, IBM Canada, Aventis Pasteur
SECTORS CONTRIBUTING LARGEST % OF STUDENTS: Financial services, high-tech
% OF STUDENTS SELF-FUNDED, PARTLY FUNDED, FULLY FUNDED: 23/20/57
SCHOOL/PROGRAM: Joseph L. Rotman
School of Management
One-Year EMBA
University of Toronto
DURATION: 13 mos.
TUITION (NEXT COHORT): $75,000
IN-PERSON REQUIREMENTS: Fridays and Saturdays every other week, plus four one-week residential modules
CLASS SIZE (2004): 100, in two cohorts
LEADING AREAS OF STUDY: Leadership development
AVERAGE STUDENT AGE/WORK EXPERIENCE: 37/13 years
% FEMALE STUDENTS: 29
% FACULTY WITH 5 YEARS CORPORATE EXPERIENCE: 46
TEACHING METHODS (% CASE STUDY, % TEAM PROJECT, % LECTURE): 30/30/40
MAJOR INTERNATIONAL AFFILIATES/PARTNERSHIPS: University of St. Gallen (Switzerland), Business School Sao Paulo (Brazil), City University of Hong Kong
MAJOR CORPORATE CUSTOMERS: No dominant firm. Current class includes students from General Motors, CGI, Bell, Sun Life Financial and CIBC
SECTORS CONTRIBUTING LARGEST % OF STUDENTS: Financial services, high-tech, media, telecom, health care
% OF STUDENTS SELF-FUNDED, PARTLY FUNDED, FULLY FUNDED: 40/40/20
SCHOOL/PROGRAM: Joseph L. Rotman
School of Management
Omnium Global EMBA
DURATION: 16 mos.
TUITION (NEXT COHORT): $72,000
IN-PERSON REQUIREMENTS: Four three-week modules in four continents, one five-day orientation module
CLASS SIZE (2004): 24
LEADING AREAS OF STUDY: International management
AVERAGE STUDENT AGE/WORK EXPERIENCE: 36/12 years
% FEMALE STUDENTS: 20
% FACULTY WITH 5 YEARS CORPORATE EXPERIENCE: N/A
TEACHING METHODS (% CASE STUDY, % TEAM PROJECT, % LECTURE): Combination of on-line and classroom learning
MAJOR INTERNATIONAL AFFILIATES/PARTNERSHIPS: University of St. Gallen (Switzerland), Business School Sao Paulo (Brazil), City University of Hong Kong
MAJOR CORPORATE CUSTOMERS: No dominant firm
SECTORS CONTRIBUTING LARGEST % OF STUDENTS: Manufacturing
% OF STUDENTS SELF-FUNDED, PARTLY FUNDED, FULLY FUNDED: Not tracked
SCHOOL/PROGRAM: Queen's School of Business
EMBA
Kingston, Ont.
DURATION: 15 mos.
TUITION (NEXT COHORT): National: $75,000, Ottawa: $70,000
IN-PERSON REQUIREMENTS: Fridays and Saturdays ever other week, plus two-week, one-week and 10-day sessions
CLASS SIZE (2004): National: 137, Ottawa: 30
LEADING AREAS OF STUDY: Global business, strategy, innovation, social responsibility
AVERAGE STUDENT AGE/WORK EXPERIENCE: 37/15 years
% FEMALE STUDENTS: 18
% FACULTY WITH 5 YEARS CORPORATE EXPERIENCE: 35
TEACHING METHODS (% CASE STUDY, % TEAM PROJECT, % LECTURE): 30/40/30
MAJOR INTERNATIONAL AFFILIATES/PARTNERSHIPS: No formal partnerships
MAJOR CORPORATE CUSTOMERS: Bell Canada, GM, National Defence and Canadian Forces, Nortel, TD, Telus, RBC Financial Group, CIBC
SECTORS CONTRIBUTING LARGEST % OF STUDENTS: Financial services, telecom, manufacturing
% OF STUDENTS SELF-FUNDED, PARTLY FUNDED, FULLY FUNDED: 50 self-funded/5- partly or fully funded
SCHOOL/PROGRAM: University of Ottawa
School of Management
EMBA
Ottawa, Ont.
DURATION: 21 mos.
TUITION (NEXT COHORT): $58,000
IN-PERSON REQUIREMENTS: One day per week, alternating between a weekend and a week day, two international study trips
CLASS SIZE (2004): 44 (max)
LEADING AREAS OF STUDY: Leadership, international management, governance
AVERAGE STUDENT AGE/WORK EXPERIENCE: 42/17 years
% FEMALE STUDENTS: 23
% FACULTY WITH 5 YEARS CORPORATE EXPERIENCE: 52
TEACHING METHODS (% CASE STUDY, % TEAM PROJECT, % LECTURE): 25/20/25, with 5 for distance learning and 25 for experiential learning
MAJOR INTERNATIONAL AFFILIATES/PARTNERSHIPS: 40 worldwide
MAJOR CORPORATE CUSTOMERS: Nortel Networks, Canada Post, Bell Canada
SECTORS CONTRIBUTING LARGEST % OF STUDENTS: Government and Crown corporations, high-tech, communications
% OF STUDENTS SELF-FUNDED, PARTLY FUNDED, FULLY FUNDED: 62/12/19
SCHOOL/PROGRAM: John Molson School
Of Business
EMBA
Concordia University,
Montreal, Que.
DURATION: 20 mos
TUITION (NEXT COHORT): $52,000
IN-PERSON REQUIREMENTS: Four-day orientation, one day a week on alternating Fridays and Saturdays, international study trip, off-site leadership seminar
CLASS SIZE (2004): 20
LEADING AREAS OF STUDY: General management, leadership, finance; strategy, technology
AVERAGE STUDENT AGE/WORK EXPERIENCE: 36/14
% FEMALE STUDENTS: 37
% FACULTY WITH 5 YEARS CORPORATE EXPERIENCE: 62
TEACHING METHODS (% CASE STUDY, % TEAM PROJECT, % LECTURE): 40/10/10, with 10 for experiential learning
MAJOR INTERNATIONAL AFFILIATES/PARTNERSHIPS: Institut Francais de Gestion (Paris)
MAJOR CORPORATE CUSTOMERS: Bell Canada, Canadian National Railway, Standard Life, Ericsson, Motorola
SECTORS CONTRIBUTING LARGEST % OF STUDENTS: Consulting and services, IT/telecom, manufacturing, pharmaceuticals
% OF STUDENTS SELF-FUNDED, PARTLY FUNDED, FULLY FUNDED: 40/20/40
SCHOOL/PROGRAM: Sherbrooke University
EMBA
Sherbrooke, Que.
DURATION: 29 mos.; 20 mos. With B.Com
TUITION (NEXT COHORT): $19,125; $12,750 with B. Com
IN-PERSON REQUIREMENTS: Alternating Fridays and Saturdays
CLASS SIZE (2004): 60, in two cohorts
LEADING AREAS OF STUDY: Business management and change
AVERAGE STUDENT AGE/WORK EXPERIENCE: 38/14 years
% FEMALE STUDENTS: 34
% FACULTY WITH 5 YEARS CORPORATE EXPERIENCE: 75
TEACHING METHODS (% CASE STUDY, % TEAM PROJECT, % LECTURE): 30/60/10
MAJOR INTERNATIONAL AFFILIATES/PARTNERSHIPS: Groupe ESIG (Morocco), ESCEM Tour (France)
MAJOR CORPORATE CUSTOMERS: Desjardins, Pratt and Whitney, Banque National, Hydro-Quebec, Bombardier, SAQ
SECTORS CONTRIBUTING LARGEST % OF STUDENTS: Banking, insurance, pharmaceuticals
% OF STUDENTS SELF-FUNDED, PARTLY FUNDED, FULLY FUNDED: 90 fully funded
SCHOOL/PROGRAM: University of Quebec
At Montreal Ecole des
Sciences de la Gestion
EMBA
Montreal, Que.
DURATION: 24 mos
TUITION (NEXT COHORT): $4,862 for Quebec residents; $11,421 for Canadians outside Quebec
IN-PERSON REQUIREMENTS: Three days a month (Friday, Saturday and Sunday)
CLASS SIZE (2004): 25
LEADING AREAS OF STUDY: General Management
AVERAGE STUDENT AGE/WORK EXPERIENCE: 37/7 to 8 years
% FEMALE STUDENTS: 40
% FACULTY WITH 5 YEARS CORPORATE EXPERIENCE: 95
TEACHING METHODS (% CASE STUDY, % TEAM PROJECT, % LECTURE): 10/40/10, with 40 for individual study
MAJOR INTERNATIONAL AFFILIATES/PARTNERSHIPS: Université Paris/Dauphine (France), Warsaw School of Economics (Poland), plus affiliate programs in Ecuador, Dominican Republic, Morocco, Algeria, Peru, Ivory Coast, Mexico, Gabon, Mali, Lebanon, Argentina, Cameroon, China, Senegal, Tunisia
MAJOR CORPORATE CUSTOMERS: Bombardier, Bank of Montreal, Royal Bank, Desjardins
SECTORS CONTRIBUTING LARGEST % OF STUDENTS: Banking, manufacturing, federal and Quebec provincial governments
% OF STUDENTS SELF-FUNDED, PARTLY FUNDED, FULLY FUNDED: 10/15/75
SCHOOL/PROGRAM: Sobey EMBA
Saint Mary's University,
Halifax
DURATION: 20 mos.
TUITION (NEXT COHORT): $38,000
IN-PERSON REQUIREMENTS: Fridays and Saturdays every second weekend, international study trip
CLASS SIZE (2004): 27
LEADING AREAS OF STUDY: General Management
AVERAGE STUDENT AGE/WORK EXPERIENCE: 37/14 years
% FEMALE STUDENTS: 40
% FACULTY WITH 5 YEARS CORPORATE EXPERIENCE: 100
TEACHING METHODS (% CASE STUDY, % TEAM PROJECT, % LECTURE): At professor's discretion
MAJOR INTERNATIONAL AFFILIATES/PARTNERSHIPS: None
MAJOR CORPORATE CUSTOMERS: Aliant, Irving Oil, Royal Bank
SECTORS CONTRIBUTING LARGEST % OF STUDENTS: Telcom, energy, medical
% OF STUDENTS SELF-FUNDED, PARTLY FUNDED, FULLY FUNDED: 44/22/34