Program Overview
Success shouldn't require a career time-out. Our Part-Time MBA provides the strategic edge you need to elevate your professional authority while maintaining your full-time role. By bridging the gap between classroom theory and boardroom practice, we equip you with the executive tools to lead through change as it happens.
Program Delivery
Maximize your time with a program delivery model that prioritizes both academic rigor and personal flexibility. While the program requires in-person attendance to ensure networking and collaboration, we provide multiple pathways to completion:
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Digital integration: Access world-class content via synchronous and asynchronous online courses. Our "on-demand" lectures are designed for maximum learning outcomes, allowing you to balance course milestones with your professional deadlines.
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Consistent evening sessions: Standard evening classes meet once weekly, providing a predictable schedule that integrates seamlessly into your work week. Want to finish sooner? You can increase your course load as your schedule allows.
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The intensive advantage: Transform your weekends or take a dedicated week in the Spring/Summer to immerse yourself in specialized topics. These intensive formats provide the same credit hours as traditional semesters but at an accelerated pace, getting you to graduation faster.
Core Curriculum
Strengthen your business knowledge through the core courses that form the foundation of the MBA program. Explore the Part-Time MBA outline.
This course provides an integrated introduction to financial and managerial accounting, emphasizing the role of accounting information in reporting, planning, and decision-making. Students will learn the concepts and purposes underlying financial reporting, including the preparation and interpretation of key financial statements. Students are introduced to cost behaviour, activity-based costing, and the use of relevant financial data for decisions related to production, marketing, and capital budgeting. Additional topics include budgeting, variance analysis, performance evaluation, and management compensation systems, with an emphasis on aligning accounting systems with organizational strategy.
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.
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 behavior. 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.
Business is an integral part of society. This course examines the complex, two-way relationship between business and society, with a focus on how leaders navigate competing demands across social spheres. Students explore historical and contemporary perspectives on the role of business in addressing urgent challenges in society, leadership and community. Case studies equip students to assess the responsibilities and opportunities for leadership in building more sustainable and resilient businesses that incorporate Indigenous perspectives.
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.
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.
The purpose of SEM 501 is to explore the complex and dynamic world of leading people. Using an evidence-based approach, this course offers an informed view of the practical challenges encountered by leaders at various organizational levels. Key topics include the acquisition, development, and retention of talent, building organizational culture, team building, effective knowledge exchange, fostering innovation, promoting equity, diversity, and inclusion and facilitating change. Topical issues like employee health and well-being, organizational ethics, artificial intelligence and leading in remote or hybrid work environments will also be considered.
The first part of this course examines the formation of business strategy. It recognizes the complexities and messiness of strategy formation and explores how organizations actually develop strategies. The second part examines the evolution, determinants, and relevance of alternative ways of organizing. Contemporary ideas (e.g. re-engineering, the learning organization, virtual organizations) are critically reviewed.
Elective courses
While our core curriculum provides the foundation, our electives give you the freedom to build a degree that matches your specific career ambitions. You’ll choose four elective courses to dive deeper into the topics that matter most to you — whether that’s supply chain, technology, sustainability or negotiations.
International experience
Business today has no borders, and neither does your MBA. Our international experience requirement ensures you gain a truly global perspective by taking your learning outside the classroom. You can choose to travel abroad to meet with international firms and see global trade in action, immerse yourself in a new culture through an exchange at one of our partner business schools, or take a deep dive through our global business courses. Whichever path you choose, it’s an opportunity to develop the global mindset you need to lead in any market.
Provides students with an introduction to the tools they will require to succeed in the increasingly international business world. Serves as a basis for other more advanced courses in International Business, covering such topics as Country Differences, International Trade, Foreign Direct Investment, Regional Economic Integration, The Foreign Exchange Market and International Business Strategy and Operations. This course will also cover selective topics in international macroeconomics.
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.
Take your learning on the road with an international study tour. These faculty-led trips give you a rare look into the boardrooms of global companies. From the bustling markets of China to the innovative business landscapes of Europe, you’ll see how trade happens on the ground and gain a perspective that only travel can provide.
Sometimes a change of scenery is the best way to spark new ideas. A short-term exchange gives you the best of both worlds: the UAlberta MBA foundation with the added perspective of a prestigious international partner. You’ll immerse yourself in a new academic culture, tackle subjects from a different point of view, and build a network of classmates from around the globe. It’s a high-impact way to broaden your horizons without slowing down your momentum.
MBA Capstone: Your MBA in action
The U of A MBA culminates in a high-stakes, applied capstone project. This is your opportunity to lead a project with real-world consequences, applying every strategy and tool you’ve mastered to a professional challenge.
How will you make your mark? Choose the path that fits your career goals:
- Scale a high-tech startup (Creative Destruction Lab)
Step into the world of venture capital and deep-tech entrepreneurship. Through the Creative Destruction Lab (CDL), you’ll work alongside seasoned mentors and founders of seed-stage science and tech companies. You won't just study innovation; you’ll help scale it — evaluating business models and providing the strategic analysis needed to bring world-changing ideas to market.
- Business as a force for good (Business on the Frontlines)
For those driven by social impact, Business on the Frontlines takes you where business is needed most. You’ll partner with organizations in vulnerable or post-conflict regions to tackle complex economic challenges. Whether you’re working to alleviate poverty or foster local entrepreneurship, you’ll see firsthand how business leadership can transform communities and build a more resilient world.
- Lead a strategic transformation (Business Strategy Capstone)
Bridge the gap between theory and the boardroom. In our Applied Learning Capstone, you’ll act as a strategic consultant for a real-world organization. You’ll work directly with leadership teams to solve a pressing business problem—delivering data-driven recommendations and a roadmap for growth.