The Desautels Faculty of Management is a faculty of McGill University. The faculty offers a range of undergraduate and graduate-level business programs including the Bachelor of Commerce, Master of Business Administration, and Doctor of Philosophy in management degrees and maintains teaching facilities in Montreal, Quebec, Canada and Tokyo, Japan. The Faculty of Management also offers a joint MD/MBA program with the Faculty of Medicine and a joint MBA/Law program with the Faculty of Law.
History
Officially founded in 1906 as the Department of Commerce within the Faculty of Arts, the Faculty of Management originated from a two-year commerce program. The Commerce program is named the School of Commerce, and the first Bachelor of Commerce (BCom) degrees are awarded by McGill in 1915. The McGill School of Commerce was founded in 1920, independent of the Faculty of Arts. The Graduate School of Business Administration was established in 1963 and graduated its first MBA class in 1965. The Graduate School of Business Administration was later merged with the School of Commerce in 1968 to form the Faculty of Management.
The Faculty of Management is located in the Samuel Bronfman Building which was named in honour of Samuel Bronfman for his donation of the building in 1972. The joint MBA/Law program received approval in 1978 and applications begin in 1979. In the 1980s, the Faculty established the Management Science Research Centre, Dobson Centre for Entrepreneurial Studies, Centre for Strategy Studies in Organizations, and Centre for International Management Studies. The Faculty also launched the Applied Investments Program, which was the first program of its kind in Canada.
The McGill Institute of Marketing (MIM) was launched in 1992. In 1996, three new programs were established: the International Masters Program in Practicing Management (IMPM), the Joint MD/MBA program, and, in conjunction with the Faculty of Engineering, the Masters in Manufacturing Management (MMM). In 1998, the Faculty launched the MBA Japan program, the first Canadian degree program offered in Japan.
In 2005, the Faculty of Management was renamed to the Desautels Faculty of Management in honor of Marcel Desautels, a retired executive from the credit reference industry, who made several gifts of more than $32 million total to the faculty. The Desmarais Global Finance Research Centre, made possible by a donation from the Desmarais family, was also established. In 2007, Marcel Desautels received an honorary McGill doctorate in recognition of his outstanding contributions to business education. In July 2008, he was made a Member of the Order of Canada, one of the highest civilian honours bestowed by the Canadian government.
In January 2012 the second floor of the Bronfman building reopened as the new "Business Intelligence Centre," featuring a trading room sponsored by the Desjardins Group. The faculty has plans to expand into the building currently occupied by the McGill Bookstore sometime in 2016 or 2017 to primarily serve as a new home for its MBA program.
In 2015, the faculty launched the world's first GROOC, a type of massive open online course with an emphasis on groupwork, titled Social Learning for Social Impact on edX.
Undergraduate programs
The faculty's Bachelor of Commerce program currently offers 12 different majors, 13 different concentrations, 4 different honours (including 2 joint honours with the Economics department), and 3 different minors as part of the BCom degree; it is one of the most highly-regarded and flexible undergraduate business programs in Canada and in the world. The BCom degree typically consists of 90 credits (for CEGEP students or students with sufficient advanced standing credits) or 120 credits (for all other students).. The Desautels BComm is one of the Top 3 undergraduate business programs in Canada, behind the Ivey Business School and the Smith School of Business. All BCom students (except for certain major/honours programs) take a 36 credit Management Core curriculum in a variety of business disciplines. The BCom program at Desautels is highly global-focused: on top of providing a unique International Business major option, its student body is also 41% international. Undergraduate students may go on an exchange at over 70 different universities across the world and the Faculty offers an international summer program for visiting undergraduates from other universities. Undergraduate students in other faculties at McGill can elect to take classes or complete a minor within Desautels.
Graduate programs
The faculty graduate-level business programs include the Master of Business Administration, Doctor of Philosophy in management degrees, and other programs. The faculty also offers joint programs with the faculties of Law and Medicine.
MBA
The Full-Time MBA is a two-year program. Students can concentrate in Finance, Marketing, Global Strategy & Leadership, Technology & Innovation Management, and choose over 50 electives courses. The 2011 class had an average age of 28, 5 years of experience and a GMAT score of 670. In 2010â€"2011, 21% of the graduating class was employed in consulting, 37% in finance, and the average total compensation was CAD$112,000 A part-time MBA program is also offered.
The Faculty also offers a separate MBA Japan Program at Nishi-Shinjuku, Tokyo. The program includes an Integrated Core curriculum consisting for four modules (Business Tools, Managing Resources and Value Creation, Markets and Globalization, Global Leadership) as well as an international study trip to McGill's main campus in Montreal.
Other Programs
Executive Education
The McGill Executive Institute provides a variety of public business seminars as well as custom executive education and coaching for all levels of management. Founded in 1956, the Institute has a full-time staff of learning design and program managers working with professors at McGill’s Faculties of Management, Law, Arts, Education and Medicine, external guest experts in specific fields, as well as visiting professors from universities worldwide. The Institute’s clientele includes businesses, not-for-profit organizations and government/public sector services.
The McGill-HEC Montréal EMBA is offered in partnership with the Desautels Faculty of Management and HEC Montréal. The EMBA is offered in a bilingual format in both English and French and lasts approximately 15 months with a 10-day study abroad trip in Latin America or Asia. Successful graduates of the program are awarded a joint MBA degree bearing the seals of both McGill University and HEC Montréal.
Research centres
The eight on-campus Research Centres and the three Business Consortia include:
- Business & Management Research Centre (BMRC)
- Centre for Strategy Studies in Organizations (CSSO)
- Desmarais Global Finance Research Centre (DGFRC)
- Dobson Centre for Entrepreneurial Studies
- International Business Families Centre
- Management Science Research Centre (MSRC)
- Marcel Desautels Institute for Integrated Management (MDIIM)
- McGill Centre for the Convergence of Health and Economics
- McGill Institute of Marketing (MIM)
- NSERC-CREATE Program on Healthcare Operations and Information Management
- Program for International Competitiveness
Admission
Desautels is known for its high level of selectivity, with only around 9% of its applicants being accepted to its BCom program each year; it boasts one of the highest admission standards among Canadian business schools, alongside Ivey and Queens. The minimum entering grade is 94.5% for Canadian high-school students and 35 subject points (including a 6 in SL/5 in HL Mathematics) for IB diploma students, although admission averages typically greatly exceed this minimum.
Student life
The Management Undergraduate Society (MUS) represents all full and part-time undergraduate students enrolled at the Desautels Faculty of Management. There are over 35 MUS committees and 11 MUS clubs that organize student activities every year. The MUS also offers six student services and academic representation to the faculty and the university. The Bull & Bear is Desautel’s student-run campus news magazine operates on an unpaid basis by an editorial team of 12 members and a staff of approximately 75.
Desautels has been host to the McGill Management International Case Competition, an international business case competition, since 2001. Students from McGill and universities across the globe compete to solve a multi-disciplinary business case judged by a panel composed of 12 company representatives from a variety of fields. The competition is held over a duration of 5 days and traditionally comprises social, networking, tourism and educational activities. The faculty also fields students team to compete in various other national and global case competitions, such as Jeux du Commerce, Financial Open, Happening Marketing, and other university case competitions around the world.
The faculty is also host to several student-run consulting organizations. The McGill Not-For-Profit Consulting is a student run consulting initiative for nonprofit organizations. The program, in partnership with McKinsey & Company, matches McGill students with nonprofit organizations in the Montreal community to work on proposals to improve some aspect of their operations. Junior Enterprise Desautels, in partnership with The Boston Consulting Group and the first of its kind in North America, and Accent on the Community, in partnership with Accenture, are also similar programs at Desautels. The McGill Business Consulting Group (MBCG), founded in 1983, is a MBA student run independent consulting group.
Desautels Capital Management (DCM), founded in 2009, is Canada’s first university-owned, incorporated, student-run registered investment firm. Undergraduate and MBA students as part of the Honours in Investment Management program manage over $4 million in its Global Equity and Fixed Income funds. DCM is one of the few student run investment firms in the world authorized to attract outside money from external investors.
The Dobson Centre for Entrepreneurial Studies hosts the annual McGill Dobson Cup. Teams composed of McGill students, faculty, alumnus, and the general population pitch their start-up ideas to seasoned experts for feedback, mentorship, and a chance to win up to $100,000 in start-up capital. The McGill Dobson Cup has attracted over 1000 innovators and helped create 97 start-ups and approximately 500 jobs.
Rankings
- 1st in Canada and 3rd in North America by the Eduniversal Business Schools Ranking, 2014
- 1st in Canada and 36th in the world by QS World University Rankings by Subject â€" Business & Management Studies, 2015
- 4th consecutive place in Canada and 17th in North America by the 2014/15 QS Global 200 Business Schools Report
- 1st in Canada and 12th in the world by América EconomÃa Global MBA Program Rankings, 2013
- 2nd in Canada and 6th in the world for addressing sustainable development and corporate social responsibility by Corporate Knights, 2016
- 10th in the world for non-US full-time MBA programs by Businessweek, 2013
- 7th in the world by Forbes for most satisfied non-US business school graduates, 2011
- 2nd in Canada and 64th in the world by The Economist â€" Full time MBA ranking, 2011
- 3rd in Canada and 49th in the world by the UTD Top 100 Worldwide Business School Rankings, 2014
- 4th in Canada and 57th in the world by the FT Global MBA Rankings, 2011
- 1st for accounting professionals and 2nd for investment bankers within Canada by LinkedIn
