*Note: Majors and specializations are still valid for currently enrolled students that started their program prior to Fall 2022 (i.e. the Morning and Evening Class of 2024), but have been discontinued for cohorts that started their program in Fall 2022 or later.
General Information
Many students find it helpful to select courses from a subset of courses offered in a functional area to enhance their skills and present potential employers with specific functional expertise (e.g. Marketing specialization), while others are interested in developing skills from a set of courses that are traditionally associated with a specific career path (e.g. Investment Banking major). All students are able to choose courses from either the core and/or recommended set of courses for a particular major or from any functional area. There are no quotas associated with either functional specializations or majors. Access to all courses is dependent upon demand and available space (most elective courses have a maximum enrolment of 40 students per section). Courses with fewer than 15 students may be cancelled due to low enrolment.
Majors and specializations are optional and are not noted on either the U of T transcript or the MBA diploma. Upon completion of a major or specialization, students may request a letter of completion from the Registrar’s Office (RO).
Students may choose to add a major or specialization to their résumé to provide potential employers with an indication of suitability for a given employment opportunity. Majors or double majors are possible given that up to four courses in each functional area or major define a level of specialization. This will allow students maximum flexibility in terms of learning and positioning for future career opportunities.
Area Specializations
Students taking four or more electives in a given functional area should be well positioned to declare this a specialization to the external community. Please note that courses taken as EXTra may also count towards specializations. The term “area” refers to the academic divisions within the Rotman School. There are seven academic areas as follows:
- Accounting
- Economic Analysis & Policy
- Finance
- Marketing
- Operations Management and Statistics
- Organizational Behaviour / Human Resource Management
- Strategic Management
- Integrative Thinking (offered by the Desautels Centre for Integrative Thinking)
During the second year of the program, students enroll in elective courses. The number of elective credits/courses required in the upper year(s) depends on the specific program of study.
All elective courses (2000-level) are 3 credit hours (0.50 credit weight). Unlike the first year of the program, the second digit of the course code implies the academic area rather than the credit value (e.g. RSM2309 wherein “3” indicates Finance).
| Academic Area | Area Number(s) |
|---|---|
| Accounting | 2 |
| Business Economics | 1 |
| Finance | 3 |
| Integrative Thinking | 9 |
| Marketing | 5 |
| Operations Management, Management Science & Statistics | 4 |
| Organizational Behaviour & Human Resource Management | 6 |
| Strategy | 0 |
Accounting
Area Coordinator: Alex Edwards
- RSM2204H – Taxation and Decision Making
- RSM2209H – Financial Statement Analysis
- RSM2210H – Financial Distress & Insolvency
- RSM2211H – Business Law
- RSM2212H – Business Analysis & Valuation
- RSM2215H – *White Collar Crime: Creative Accounting and Corporate Fraud (previously *Analytical Insight from Financial Accounting Data)
- RSM2216H – *Analysis of Financial Institutions & Financial Instruments (not offered)
Economic Analysis & Policy
Area Coordinator: Heski Bar-Isaac
- RSM2113H – The Practice of Model-Based Decision Making
- RSM2122H – Clean Energy: Policy Context and Business Opportunities
- RSM2123H – International Business in the World Economy
- RSM2125H – Game Theory & Applications for Management
- RSM2126H – Real Estate Development
- RSM2127H – Economic Environment of International Business
- RSM2128H – Real Estate Economics
- RSM2129H – Forecasting Models & Econometric Methods
- RSM2130H – Real Estate Investment
- RSM2132H – Business and the City
Finance
Area Coordinator: David Goldreich
- RSM2300H – Corporate Financing
- RSM2301H – Financial Management
- RSM2302H – Security Analysis & Portfolio Management
- RSM2303H – Risk Modeling & Financial Trading Strategies
- RSM2304H – Financial Institutions & Capital Markets
- RSM2305H – International Financial Management
- RSM2306H – Options & Futures Markets
- RSM2307H – Advanced Derivatives (not offered)
- RSM2308H – Financial Risk Management
- RSM2309H – Mergers & Acquisitions
- RSM2310H – Analysis & Management of Fixed Income Securities
- RSM2312H – Value Investing
- RSM2314H – Private Equity & Entrepreneurial Finance
- RSM2315H – The Management of Private Wealth
- RSM2318H – Sustainable Finance
- RSM2322H – Blockchain and Decentralized Finance
- RSM2326H – How Banks Work: Management in a New Technological Age
- RSM2328H – Machine Learning and Financial Innovation
- RSM2706H – Impact Investing in an Early-Stage Enterprise
Marketing
Area Coordinator: Nitin Mehta
- RSM2500H – Marketing Strategy
- RSM2504H – Consumer Behavior
- RSM2505H – Strategic Marketing Communication
- RSM2506H – Marketing Research
- RSM2508H – Sales Management
- RSM2511H – Fintech Marketing: Innovation in the Marketing of Financial Services
- RSM2512H – Branding
- RSM2513H – Pricing
- RSM2515H – BEAR Lab
- RSM2518H – Service Design: Innovating Service-Based Organizations
- RSM2519H – Managing Customer Value 2.0
- RSM2520H – One to One Marketing
- RSM2521H – Digital Marketing
- RSM2522H – Marketing and Behavioural Economics
- RSM2523H – Business Design Fundamentals
- RSM2524H – Business Design Practicum
- RSM2526H – Creative Thinking for Business Innovation (previously RSM2530H – Special Topics in Marketing: Creativity and Business Innovation)
- RSM2527H – Design Research and Insight-Driven Storytelling (previously RSM2516H – Special Topics in Marketing: Design Research and Data Storytelling)
Operations Management and Statistics
Area Coordinator: Ming Hu
- RSM2401H – Data and Information Management for Business Analytics
- RSM2405H – Supply Chain Management
- RSM2406H – Operations Management Strategy
- RSM2407H – Service Operations Management
- RSM2408H – Modeling and Optimization for Decision Making
- RSM2409H – Data Science for Managers (previously Management Analytics)
- RSM2417H – Quality Management with Lean Six Sigma
Organizational Behaviour / Human Resource Management
Area Coordinator: Maria Rotundo
- RSM2601H – Organization Design
- RSM2603H – Advanced Negotiations & Conflict Management
- RSM2604H – Managerial Negotiations
- RSM2609H – Aligning People and Strategy
- RSM2615H – Building Businesses for Sustainability
- RSM2618H – The Socially Intelligent Manager
- RSM2619H – Power & Influence in Organizations
- RSM2620H – Leading Teams
- RSM2621H – Effective Leadership
- RSM2625H – Business Problem Solving: A Model-Based Approach
- RSM2640H – Leading Social Innovation
- RSM2760H – C-Suite: Living Out Leadership Day to Day for Organizational Impact
Strategic Management
Area Coordinator: Becky Reuber
- RSM2008H – Creative Destruction Lab Intro
- RSM2011H – International Strategy
- RSM2012H – Entrepreneurship
- RSM2013H – Creative Destruction Lab Advanced
- RSM2017H – Pharmaceutical Strategy
- RSM2018H – Strategy in Emerging Markets
- RSM2019H – Corporation 360°
- RSM2020H – Health Sector Strategy & Organizations
- RSM2021H – Corporate Strategy
- RSM2023H – Strategic Change and Implementation
- RSM2030H – Canadian Business History
- RSM2040H – Advanced Value Capture Strategies: Theory and Applications
- RSM2052H – Management Consulting
- RSM2054H – Technology Strategy
- RSM2055H – Cooperative Strategy (not offered)
- RSM2057H – Venture Capital Strategy
- RSM2058H – Communicating Strategy
- RSM2059H – Healthcare and Life Sciences Consulting: Field Application Project
- RSM2061H – Strategic Networks
- RSM2062H – Management Consulting Practicum
- RSM2063H – Catastrophic Failure in Organizations
- RSM2081H – Social Entrepreneurship
- RSM2085H – Healthcare Innovation
- RSM2099H – International Entrepreneurship
Integrative Thinking
Offered by the Desautels Centre for Integrative Thinking.
Area Coordinator: TBC
RSM2913H – GettingItDone®
RSM2920H – Top Manager’s Perspective
RSM2923H – Business Problem Solving
Majors
In order to assist students in selecting appropriate courses for the upper year(s) of the program, the guidelines for the Majors have been developed by the Rotman School of Management: Please note that courses taken as EXTra may also count towards Majors.
- Brand Management
Major Coordinator: Nitin Mehta - Business Design
Major Coordinator: Angèle Beausoleil - Consulting
Major Coordinator: Brian Silverman - Financial Reporting and Analysis
Major Coordinator: Alex Edwards - Funds Management
Major Coordinator: Mikhail Simutin - General MBA
- Global Management
Major Coordinator: Walid Hejazi
International Program Staff: Freeda Khan - Health Sector Management
Major Coordinator: Brian Golden - Innovation and Entrepreneurship
Major Coordinator: Brian Silverman - Investment Banking
Major Coordinator: Andrey Golubov - Leadership and Change Management
Major Coordinator: Geoffrey Leonardelli - Management Analytics
Major Coordinator: Dmitry Krass - Process and Supply Chain Management
Major Coordinator: Joseph Milner - Real Estate
Major Coordinator: William Strange - Risk Management and Financial Engineering
Major Coordinator: John Hull - Social Impact and Sustainability
Major Coordinator: Katy DeCelles