Program Overview

A full-time research-based program designed to develop scholars

Program Overview

A full-time research-based program designed to develop scholars

The program officially starts in mid-August with the Statistics boot camp seminar. Generally, students complete all program and discipline course requirements in the first two years. In the summer of their second year, students complete the comprehensive exam; at the end of their third year, students complete the thesis proposal and after that, students focus on their thesis research and final defense -see Program Milestones section below for more details.

From the very beginning of the program, students work on research, present their ideas at conferences, write papers for publication and interact with academic peers from other universities.

*This page is not updated on a regular basis and is provided as an overview of the program and discipline requirements. New Timeline Years 1-4+

Program Requirements

All the below requirements are to be completed before the comprehensive exam in year 2.

Statistics boot camp (offered mid-August before the start of Year 1)
Bus 9702 Multivariate Analysis in Year 1
Bus 9704 Research Methods in Year 1
Bus 9712 Special Topics in Statistics before the end of Year 2¹
Bus 9723 Summer Research Paper before the end of Year 2²
Pass at least two PhD-level courses outside of Ivey before the end of Year 2³
Shadow and Ivey professor for an entire graduate, MBA or MSc course or complete at least 20 hours of courses/workshops at Western Teaching Centre

Discipline Requirements

Below are the discipline requirements governed by each of the respective disciplines. Please note that if further development is identified in any area, students may be required to take additional courses as requested by the student’s supervisor or the faculty discipline coordinator.

Applies to students in the areas of Business, Economics and Public Policy, Entrepreneurship, International Business, Strategy or Sustainability

All these requirements are to be completed before the comprehensive exam unless otherwise noted.

Bus 9770 Business Strategy I
Bus 9771 Business Strategy II
Bus 9826 Organizational Theory
Two of the following GM field courses (1 unit total):
- Bus 9703 International Management (0.5 units)
- Bus 9773 Business Sustainability (0.5 units)
- Bus 9775 Non-market Strategy (0.5 units)
- Bus 9777 Entrepreneurship (0.5 units)
Elective Courses (2 units)
Research Paper and Oral Exam (To be completed by August 31 of Year 2)

Two of these requirements are to be completed before the comprehensive exam

Bus 9832 Information Systems I
Bus 9842 Information Systems II
Bus 9852 Information Systems III

All these requirements are to be completed before the comprehensive exam

Bus 9802 Fundamentals of Management Science Research
Bus 9812 Management Science I
Bus 9872 Management Science II
Bus 9882 Management Science III
Bus 9078 Art of Modeling (MSc)
Bus 9043 Big Data Analytics (MSc)
Bus 9044 Simulation and Risk Analysis (MSc)
Bus 9057 Prescriptive Analytics (MSc)
Econ 9601 Microeconomics I
Econ 9602 Microeconomics II
Econ 9607 Economic Mathematics I

All these requirements are to be completed before the comprehensive exam

Earn 80% or more on Bus 9764 Research Paper (equivalent to 9723 for direct entry students; due August 1 of Year 1).
Bus 9804 Theories of Marketing
Bus 9814 Decision-Making
Bus 9824 Experimental Design
Bus 9834 Consumer Behaviour

All these requirements are to be completed before the comprehensive exam

Bus 9805 Operations I
Bus 9815 Operations II

All these requirements are to be completed before the comprehensive exam

Bus 9806 Individual & the Organization
Bus 9816 Group Behaviour & Cross-Level Research
Bus 9826 Organizational Theory

Program Milestones

Comprehensive Exam
Thesis Proposal Exam
Thesis Defense