University Canada West Featured in the Globe and Mail

Business-ready grads equipped with skills for a changing world of commerce

As demonstrated by the recent financial crisis, business moves at the speed of light and on a global scale. To prepare tomorrow's business leaders, western institutes of higher learning are responding with innovative new programs - helping students graduate faster, aim higher and bridge disciplines to leverage innovation.

"Each graduate school has a unique approach; here in Regina, we embrace the Saskatchewan culture and approach to learning - real, human and authentic.

It creates a very interesting intellectual synergy," says Sylvain Charlebois, associate dean and director of the University of Regina's Kenneth Levene Graduate School of Business.

URegina offers four master's degree programs designed to meet the needs of mid-career learners, using case studies based on western Canadian companies.

"It's an opportunity to step back and take a comprehensive look at how the world of business is evolving," he says. "We help our students better understand what's at stake in responding to issues such as the global downturn, ethics, corporate social responsibility and labour shortages; using case studies based on western Canadian companies helps them relate."

The programs offer a midcareer entry option that requires seven years of midlevel management experience.

"We offer a Master's in Human Resources Management and a Master's (Admin) in Leadership, both unique in Western Canada. It's essential to business success today; you need to take care of your people," says Mr. Charlebois.

"The ultimate goal is to have a better understanding of how leadership evolves within organizations, how to honour success and how to bring out the best in people."

In British Columbia, University Canada West offers a distinctive learning model for undergraduate and graduates students. The president and vice-chancellor, says in keeping with business today, "Our principle has been to move as fast as we can.

"We design our undergraduate programs, for example, so that a student can complete a four-year degree in two years. We do that simply by running programs five terms a year. In a two-year period, students can get all the courses that would typically take four or five years to complete."

As a result, he says, even though tuition is slightly higher at University Canada West due to the absence of public funding, students graduating after two years are about $30,000 or $40,000 ahead of those graduating from traditional degree programs after four or five years. "Like compound interest, that two- to three-year early start will continue to add value to their lifetime earnings."

The private university model is a welcome solution for students who may meet the basic entry requirements, but don't meet the current high cut-off grades of traditional universities, says the university's president.

"Canada needs more universities with greater access and greater diversity of students. For example, we know that males are generally a year or two years academically behind females in high school, meaning that when universities fill the publicly funded seats, they cut off registrations at grades way above their stated thresholds," he says, noting, "Even though entry requirements are said to be 65 per cent, the cut off has been 80 per cent or higher in recent years."

University Canada West also provides an exceptional level of student support. "For every course, we provide a learning coach, not just for tutoring, but as a combination of tutor, friend, mentor and advisor. Students are coached on everything, from teamwork to leadership. We also place a very strong emphasis on writing, and provide writing coaches as well."

At the University of Victoria's Faculty of Business, reaching across the traditional silos of education is inspiring innovation in tomorrow's leaders. Jill Doucette, a fourth-year biology student, recently won top honours at the national Nicol Entrepreneurship competition for her green business consulting practice, Synergy.

As a barista as well as a biology and environmental studies student, Ms. Doucette noticed many opportunities for the coffee house she worked in to 'green' its operations.

"With a lot of persuasion, the owners got onboard and we ended up building a model that would apply to any type of organization. There were a lot of positive outcomes; they were even able to reduce their marketing budget."

Once she started sharing her model with other businesses, Ms. Doucette says she found that small business owners simply don't often have implementation time. "That's where the consulting idea came in. I've greened four businesses to date; my goal is a hundred."

The business faculty at UVic is unique, says Ms. Doucette, in the way faculty members work to bridge the gap between science and business.

"As a biology student, I built connections with professors such as Mike Valente and Monica Winn, doing joint projects with them. I'd never have heard of the competition in the first place if I wasn't engaging in these cross-disciplinary activities. They're really progressive and create space for innovative ideas."

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