Page 1
Page 2
Page 3
Page 4

SiMON FRASER UNIVERSITY

MEMORANDUM

5.7

4?5-

From...

Dean of Graduate Studies

Sub

ect..

.cLl.t'ri.ctJl.um. .ça

nges .

Date ......

ttQYttIb.er. .13.,..1985........................

Day

MBA

Program

Action undertaken by the Senate Graduate Studies Committee at its

Meeting on November

12, 1985, 

gives rise to the following motion:

MOTION:

"That Senate approve and recommend approval to the

Board of Governors, as set forth in S.85-6 the

proposed changes to the Day MBA program:

Change in credit requirements

From: Project Option:

9

courses totalling at

least 36 credits plus a major research

project (4 credits)

Thesis Option: ?

6 courses totalling at

least

24

credits plus an original thesis

(16 credits)

To: ?

Project Option:

8

courses plus a research

project

Thesis Option: ?

6 courses plus a thesis

ii)

Delete from the approved list of Accounting courses:

Bus

876-4 

Decision Support Systems

Delete from the approved list of Organization Behavior

courses:

Bus 833-4 

?

Trends and Issues in Micro Organization Behavior

Bus

834-4 ? 

Macro Perspectives on Organization

iii)

That the minimum number of courses in a supporting field

will be two under the project option and one under the

thesis option"

Rationale for these changes is outlined in the attached paper.

Bruce P. Clayman

Dean of Graduate Studies.

mm!

attachs.

SiMON FRASER

MEMORANDUM

UNIVERSITY

DEAN

NOV

4-115

fPflI lATe

0 ?

To ........ 

'99.

Chairman 

Senate Graduate Studies Committee 

Subject. . . ? •9• Day 

?

.A.

STUDIES OFFICE

From... Bertram Schoner 

i.ct;. Gt'dlrntProgranr .............. 

Faculty of Business Administration 

Date.. 

November 

1.,..

85 ?

The Faculty of Business Administration passed the following modifications 

to the day M.B.A. program at a meeting of the faculty on October 

31, 1985.

These modifications are designed to make the program more attractive to 

potential students without prejudicing the essential nature of the program. 

The difficulties we have encountered in the first two years of the program 

are twofold. First, excellent students with undergraduate degrees in Business 

Administration or Commerce can generally have the first year of an M.B.A. 

program waived at virtually any university in Canada, and graduate in a year. 

We require two years and, as a consequence, have lost some excellent candidates. 

Second, although our program has a provision for students without undergraduate 

business degrees to enter by taking qualifying courses, we have done little to 

make this a feasible option. 

The proposed modifications to the program are designed to address these two 

difficulties. 

Changes to the Program 

(1)

Change the credit requirements as follows: 

FROM 

Project Option: 

courses totalling at least 

credits plus a major 

research project 

credits) 

Thesis Option: 

?

courses totalling at least 

credits plus an 

original thesis 

(16

credits) 

TO

Project Option: 

courses plus a research project 

Thesis Option: 

?

courses plus a thesis 

(2)

No field of concentration will require more than 

courses. As a 

consequence BUS. 

876-4

is dropped from the approved list of Accounting 

courses, BUS. 

833-4

and BUS. 

831I_1

are dropped from the Organization 

Behavior offerings. 

(3)

The minimum number of courses in a supporting field will be two under the 

project option and one under the thesis option. 

/2

.

-2-

?

Rationale 

These changes make it possible for a student with a BBA or B.Comm. to 

complete the program in three consecutive semesters provided that the student is 

not also a teaching assistant during the period. (A truly exceptional student 

may be able to do both.) The student who requires financial support in the form 

of a TAship or the part-time student will take longer to complete the program. 

The omission of reference to required credit hours in item (1) above is 

intentional. We are less concerned with credits assigned to a course than with 

the question of whether or not a particular course fits a student's program. 

For example, most finance students take ECON 802 because understanding 

micro-economics is considered to be essential to understanding modern finance. 

Although our own courses are four credits and ECON 802 is three credits, the 

programs of many students would be negatively affected were they to not take 

ECON 802 for this reason. 

The changes to the program do not affect its fundamental character. While 

the course requirements are dropped, they remain respectable in comparison with 

other programs in the university and other MBA programs across the country. 

Duration of Program 

We propose to modify the calendar entry as follows: 

The calendar will indicate that students who are not TA'ing or engaged in 

other outside work should be able to complete the program in three consecutive 

semesters. Students who are TA'Ing should complete within two years. Part-time 

students may take longer. 

This change is really editorial in nature. 

Program Admission for Non-Business Graduates 

The calendar now permits entry into the program for non-business graduates 

provided that they have completed a business core. We propose to rewrite this 

section to identify courses that the student should take prior to acceptance as 

a qualifying student, and courses which can be taken as a qualifying student. 

Non-business majors who already have the equivalent of the following SFU 

courses completed may be eligible to enrol as qualifying students. These 

courses are: 

(1)

Computer Programming: CMPT 100 or CMPT 101 

These are introductory courses in computer operation and programming. 

(2)

Calculus: MATH 157 and MATH 158 

These are introductory courses in differential and integral calculus. 

•1

MIC

(3)

Statistics: BUEC 

232

and BIJEC 

333

These are introductory probability and statistics courses with business and 

economics applications. Major topics covered are descriptive statistics, 

probability, estimation, hypothesis testing and regression analysis. 

(4)

Accounting: BUS. 

251

An introduction to Financial Accounting. 

Students accepted as qualifying students who have not taken the following 

courses will normally take them in the summer semester preceding entry into the 

regular program in the fall. Completion of these courses with a grade of B or 

better is necessary to proceed in the program. 

(1)

Managerial Economics: BUS. 

307-3

or ECON 

301-5

(2)

Business Finance: BUS. 

312-3

(3)

Accounting for Management: BUS. 

328-3

(4)

Introduction to Marketing: BUS. 

3143_3

(Note: Students who wish to take a major field in marketing 

•

?

will be required to take BUS. 

31I73 

Consumer Behavior instead.) 

(5)

Organization Behavior: BUS. 

312-3

(6)

Management Science: BUS. 

336-

Students may also be required to take undergraduate courses relevant to 

their area of specialization concurrently with graduate course to overcome 

deficiencies. 

BS:jinl 

Bertram Schoner 

Director, Graduate Program 