EMBA Guide 2020: Programs in Ontario

DeGroote School of Business
McMaster University, Hamilton

Full time: 14 months
Work experience required: 7 years of work/management experience required
Tuition: $92,000

DeGroote’s EMBA program equips McMaster grads to manage and lead through an era of digital disruption by focusing on digital transformation. As part of the program, students spend eight days immersed in communities thriving in this field; past visits have included Google, Apple, Facebook and IDEO. Students complete four in-person residencies, while all other programming is predominantly online. Based on recent feedback from students and alumni, the school is currently strengthening its coaching component by adding access to a career coach and additional resources for job seekers.

Ivey Business School
Western University, London

Full time: 16 months
Work experience required: 8 years of work experience required
Tuition: $115,000

New on this year’s EMBA curriculum at the internationally acclaimed Ivey Business School are two hands-on opportunities: a trip to Silicon Valley for those studying entrepreneurialism, and to Mexico City for students of sustainability, in addition to the already existing week-long discovery expedition to Asia. The trips are all part of Ivey’s emphasis on experiential, face-to-face practical learning. Classroom discussions primarily use the case method approach and problem-solve by dividing a class of more than 100 into smaller learning teams.

Rotman School of Management
University of Toronto

Full time: 13 months
Work experience required: 8 years of work and 3 years of management experience required
Tuition: $113,800

Tailored for senior working professionals, the Rotman one-year EMBA program teaches business fundamentals and strengthens leadership skills by fostering self-awareness. The school’s international reputation offers exchange privileges with partner schools in Italy and China, plus all students participate in the Leadership Retreat, an experiential off-site workshop. Students can also participate in the entrepreneur-based Creative Destruction Lab to collaborate with the country’s more successful entrepreneurs. New courses include Business Design and the soon-to-launch Power and Influence for Executives course.

Schulich School of Business
York University, Toronto

Full time: 18 months
Work experience required: 8 years of work and 5 years of management experience required
Tuition: $113,000

The 80 students enrolled in York’s EMBA program are part of the Kellogg Global Network of EMBA programs, which connects nearly 500 students from around the world. Partner schools give students ample choice and flexibility to customize their experience from over 40 specialized elective courses (among them: Advertising Strategy, B2B Marketing and Game Theory). The Kellogg-Schulich Executive MBA has been ranked No. 1 in Canada by the Economist and the Financial Times of London.

Smith School of Business
Queen’s University, Kingston

Full time: 16 months
Work experience required: 3 years of management and 8 years of work experience required
Tuition: $102,000

To mimic the workplace, students of Smith’s EMBA are assigned to small teams for the duration of the program to collaborate on assignments, presentations and projects. Each team has a coach, who provides feedback and evaluates the team’s effectiveness as they undertake a comprehensive analysis of a real global business issue somewhere outside of North America, to which they travel to conduct field research. (Smith also offers a joint EMBA Americas program with Cornell University, the only one of its kind, in which grads earn an MBA from both Queen’s and Cornell.)

Sprott School of Business
Carleton University, Ottawa

Full time: 16 months
Work experience required: 5 years of work/management experience required
Tuition: $31,000

This is the inaugural year for the Sprott School’s PMBA (professional MBA, rather than executive), the programming for which is founded on years of faculty expertise and content developed in Carleton’s highly successful international MBA program. Thirty-five students will comprise the first cohort, which will gather every other weekend on Friday and Saturday (with Sundays free, along with March Break and a three-week summer). Catering to working professionals, no additional work placement is required.

Telfer School of Management
University of Ottawa

Full time: 21 months
Work experience required: 5 years of work/management experience required
Tuition: $75,000

An intimate cohort of almost 30 focuses on highly coveted soft skills, such as communication and adaptability, necessary for teamwork and emotional intelligence. Self-leadership and career transformation are consistently described as outcomes of the program by alumni, who have the chance to build lasting relationships through a series of six client consulting projects (integrated into the curriculum, two are global in focus and require international travel). Program staff focus on service excellence to ensure candidates are fully supported throughout the 21-month experience.