An exciting announcement from Rotman today! We have joined forces with the other top Canadian business schools to form the Canadian MBA Alliance. The newly established group – which includes Desautels, Ivey, Queen’s, Rotman, Sauder, and Schulich – aims to increase worldwide awareness of the high quality of MBA programs in Canada; thus helping attract international talent to Canada; and retaining top Canadian talent in the country.

Canadian MBA Alliance Events: Ottawa, Vancouver, Calgary 

Later this month, the MBA Alliance member schools will host a series of combined, two-hour information events to promote the merits of an MBA education to prospective students in Ottawa, Vancouver and Calgary. In the coming months you’ll hear about upcoming Canadian MBA Alliance events in additional Canadian cities. The Alliance also plans to expand into key international markets this fall (stay tuned for the dates/locations!).

What will our events be like?

Our vision for the initiative is to establish a unique event format where top candidates will hear from Admissions Directors from the best B-Schools in Canada. We’ll discuss our Programs, provide insights about submitting a compelling application, and give you the inside scoop on how admissions decisions are made. We’ll leave plenty of time for a Q&A period so you can get answers to the business school questions that are most important to you. The evening will typically end with an opportunity to network and chat one-on-one with the Admissions Directors and alumni from each of the six schools.

How This Got Started

In the past, this same group of schools has co-hosted panel events at MBA Fairs, where we promoted the advantages of Canada as a destination for your MBA education. We met this fall to discuss expanding our collaborative initiatives to better showcase the Canadian MBA brand.

We were already highlighting similar themes in our individual interactions with prospective students:

• Global rankings place all our programs among the top 100 in the world
• Our tuition fees are competitive
• Canada has a stable economy and generous job opportunities for MBA grads
• Canada’s immigration policies are uniquely progressive and, as a nation, we welcome diversity and newcomers.

Working together to promote the natural advantages of studying in Canada – in a targeted and focused format where candidates get exclusive access to the top business schools in the country – seemed like a perfect approach and we hope it provides real value to prospective candidates as you explore our programs in more depth.

The Canadian MBA Tipping Point

I am really excited about what we can achieve working together. Canadian Schools seem to be on the verge of a ‘tipping point,’ with interest in studying here rising rapidly over the last several years. According to the latest data from the Graduate Management Admissions Council (GMAC) there has been a 28% increase in GMAT scores sent to Canadian Programs relative to test taking volume five years ago. Overall GMAT test taking volume during the same period grew by 7.5% worldwide, so we are truly seeing a major shift in demand for opportunities at Canadian business schools. We firmly believe that the Canadian MBA Alliance initiative is going to result in Canadian schools winning more top talent from around the globe, ultimately boosting the collective worldwide market share for Canada’s education brand – a benefit not only for all of our Schools, but for the country!

Learn more about the Canadian MBA Alliance and register for our upcoming events in Ottawa, Calgary and Vancouver at: www.canadianmbaalliance.ca