The UAlberta Energy MBA Program

The UAlberta Energy MBA brings the classroom to you and allows you to complete the MBA degree while continuing to work full-time. The program combines our core business fundamentals curriculum with specialized courses focused on the energy, oil and gas, and natural resource sectors.

Program Overview

The majority of the UAlberta Energy MBA will be delivered online. Courses will be primarily asynchronous, with some synchronous components to allow connection and discussion with your peers and the professor. In addition, you will complete three in-person classes throughout the program. These will be held in Edmonton, Ft. McMurray, and Calgary. The program is cohort-based and spread out over 32 months. You'll make your way through the program with the same group of students allowing you to build strong connections.

Course Overview

The UAlberta Energy MBA is designed to offer both a solid understanding of management essentials and a targeted focus on managing and leading within the energy resources sector. The program is structured to first provide you with an understanding of core business principles before delving into energy-focused courses and program electives.

Core Curriculum

ACCTG 501: Financial Reporting and Analysis

Accounting information's role in recording and reporting on economic and business events including the primary financial statements: balance sheet, income statement, and cash flow. Concepts and purposes underlying financial reporting. Selection of accounting policies and their informational effects for external users. The course begins to develop students' abilities to evaluate and interpret financial information through basic financial analysis.

ACCTG 523: Accounting Information and Internal Decision Making

Accounting concepts used by managers in planning and decision-making. The course introduces concepts of cost and profit behaviour, contribution margin, and activity-based costing, as well as relevant costs and revenues for production, marketing, and capital budgeting decisions. The course also introduces students to the management planning and control system and its components - budgets, variance analysis, performance evaluation in centralized and decentralized organizations, and management compensation plans. The importance of designing a system to fit the organizations' strategy is emphasized. Prerequisite: ACCTG 501

BUEC 503: Economic Foundations

This course focuses on economic decision making at the level of the firm and consumer, utilizing demand and supply analysis to help understand a variety of economic and managerial issues. Formal models of managerial economic problems will be developed and used for purposes of analysis. The course will also deal with public economics, regulatory economics, and introduce issues of information economics and strategic behaviour. The theory of public choice and public goods will be used to analyze a variety of public economic issues. The course will also cover macroeconomic issues including: measuring macroeconomic variables, sources of economic growth, business cycles, interest rates, exchange rates, government debt, and other topics.

BUEC 646: The Global Business Environment

Examines the changing global business environment and how it impacts international business decision-making. Covers such topics as Trends in Globalization, International Business in Canada, Managing Multinational Corporations, Importing and Exporting, International Labor Markets and the Market for Skills, International Financial Markets, Financial Crises, and Corporate Governance in Different Countries.

BUS 505: Ethics and Corporate Social Responsibility

This course explores the ethical challenges facing business leaders today, and how individuals and firms can address those challenges. The course aims to enhance the skills and expertise of students through combining examination of ethical and managerial theory with discussion of common ethical problems in context. Contemporary ethical and social issues will be examined through the use of case studies, class discussions and debates. Course material includes individual ethical theory, the development of ethical organizational culture, the development of ethical management systems designed to respond to ethical challenges, and wide-ranging discussion regarding major trends, challenges, and opportunities in the field of ethical business.

FIN 501: Managerial Finance

Fundamental concepts in asset valuation are discussed within the context of simple asset pricing models and efficient financial markets. This course introduces the valuation of financial assets such as bonds and stocks. Further topics include the issuing of financial securities, leverage, dividend policy, cash management, and derivative securities. Prerequisites: ACCTG 501, BUEC 503, and MGTSC 501.

MARK 502: Principles of Marketing Management

This course commences with an examination of core marketing concepts, including strategic marketing planning, segmentation and the marketing mix (product, price, place and promotion) and the integration of these concepts into a marketing plan. Specific focus is then provided to developing pragmatic skills regarding marketing effectiveness.

MGTSC 501: Data Analysis and Decision Making

This course begins with a survey of graphical and numerical techniques available for studying and describing data. Following an introduction to probability distributions, an overview of statistical inference for means and proportions is provided. Regression, analysis of variance and decision analysis are then utilized to analyze data and support decision making. Time series models are also briefly discussed. The data and decisions analyzed throughout the course will be representative of those commonly encountered by managers. During the required lab sessions, spreadsheet analysis of data, Monte Carlo simulation and the use of software for statistical analysis will be presented.

OM 502: Operations Management

This course focuses on (1) the competitive advantage that a business unit can derive from innovative and efficient production and delivery of its goods and services and on (2) analytical approaches that are useful in understanding and improving an organization's operations. Specific modules include process diagramming and analysis; measuring and managing flow times; inventory control and optimization; supply chain coordination and operations strategy. Cases will be used to illustrate operational efficiency and its significance to the profitability of a firm. Prerequisite: MGTSC 501.

SEM 500: Managing People

Introduces students to organizational behaviour (OB) and human resource management (HRM), and how to generate energy and commitment in employees. Examines options relevant to staffing, performance management, reward systems, leadership, motivation, decision making, communication, labour relations, and current issues in the field of management.

SEM 641: Business Strategy

This course examines top management decisions and emphasizes the development of business and corporate strategy. It integrates the management principles studied in the business core using a series of business cases.

SEM 652: Leadership Skills

The purpose of this course is to increase the student's understanding of leadership roles and skill in exercising those roles. These include team building, mentoring, managing conflict, delegating, managing participative decision making, creative problem solving, and time and stress management.

Area Focused

BUEC 563: Energy Industries and Markets
This course provides a broad introduction to the energy industries and markets, focusing on market structure, firm strategy and behaviour, regulation and public policy. The evolving nature of industries and markets, including technological challenges, environmental constraints and globalization, are discussed. Prerequisite: BUEC 502 or 503
BUEC 564: Environmental Management
The economic theory of externalities is introduced and applied in a discussion of alternative policy instruments such as taxes, tradable permits, and regulatory standards which are used to deal with pollution. Topics include current environmental regulation issues such as climate change, water and air pollution and firm strategy. Extensions include an introduction to cost-benefit analysis and environmental impact assessment tools for project evaluation as well as a discussion of the economics of non-renewable resources. Prerequisite: BUEC 502 or 503.
BUEC 678: Managing Business-Government Relations in Canada

The role of business in the public policy process: How business organizations influence public policy and its administration, and how public policies affect business. Processes of change are of particular interest. Attention is placed on the motivation, behaviour patterns, and the dynamics of the interaction of different stakeholder groups, policymakers, and managers responsible for the implementation of public policies. Develops a framework for analysis of the effectiveness and efficiency of different fiscal, regulatory, and promotional policies; consideration is given to the impact of technological, economic, and social change on policy choice in the long run. Prerequisites: BUEC 502 or 503.

B LAW 628: Natural Resource and Environmental Law

The course considers the legal framework in which managerial decisions affecting the environment are taken. It looks at the substances of environmental law and the procedures for enforcing it. The interaction of this legal approach with business strategies for dealing with environmental issues is analyzed.

FIN 640: Commodities Analytics and Trading

This course reflects the aspects of a trader development program in industry with a strong trading analytics base consistent with today’s marketplace requirements. You are expected to learn analytical concepts using the R language and become proficient in your ability to implement them with real-world data. The skills set is transferable to any analytically based job, such as risk management, trading analytics, and/or quantitative trading including fundamentals. Prerequisites: FIN 501. Corequisite: FIN 654.

FIN 654: Risk Management
Futures, options, and other derivative securities. Markets, valuation models, application to risk management through hedging, and the application of pricing models to the valuation of financial contracts. Prerequisite: FIN 501 or FIN 503.
SEM 638: Corporate Sustainability

This course examines business strategies for sustainable development. Business sustainability is defined as managing the triple bottom line - designing mission-driven enterprises that provide a thriving future for business, society, and the planet. To achieve this, managers must adopt a fresh understanding of the role of the business enterprise. The course will draw from successful sustainability efforts of leading business organizations, both locally and internationally, by identifying key success factors that encourage sustainable business practices. It will also place the current understandings of sustainability in a wider context by exploring the historical roots of current sustainability practices and examining their implications for key stakeholders of the business enterprise.

SEM 686: An Executive Perspective on Analytics

An Executive Perspective on Analytics is an integrative and interdisciplinary course. Rather than teach students how to do analytics, this course focuses on applying analytics to a variety of real-world business problems. Specifically, this course takes a general management perspective that emphasizes the role of individuals and organizations using analytics to make strategic decisions and embark upon courses of strategic action.