This calls for modernized business education that brings the world into the classroom and offers innovative learning environments so that students gain in-demand expertise and leadership best practices, build their resilience and courage, and evolve their understanding of the critical issues facing business and society.
Ivey aspires to build on its legacy of real-world leadership education by continually innovating how it connects to students and delivers programs while keeping case-based teaching, experiential learning, and co-curricular engagement at the heart of its transformational experience.
A New Approach to Programs
To maximize our program delivery, we need to preserve what’s valuable in our current approach while embracing new processes and tools that allow us to respond to changing needs.
One of the biggest changes to Ivey’s program delivery was a program office restructuring that enabled us to create efficiencies and synergies and work across programs to solve common challenges while still maintaining our focus on excellence in each program.
We have also realigned program timing to allow us to cross-list existing courses while continually creating new courses focused on the Ivey Next critical issues.
HBA students in the classroom
Progress highlights
Program office restructuring
In May 2023, Ivey’s four program offices for HBA, MSc/MM in Analytics, MBA/AMBA, and EMBA were consolidated and restructured into two new groups: Programs Operations and Student Experience. Each group had a new leader appointed, an Executive Director – Programs Operations to oversee the Programs Operations teams and a Director – Student Experience to oversee student advisory and support, student experience, and the international exchange portfolio.
The goal of the restructuring was to create consistency and an Ivey-wide approach across all programs and to ensure more care was placed on student experience, while preserving the excellence we had built in supporting individual programs. The restructuring also helps staff to better manage increasing responsibilities due to the growth of our programs since some processes can be streamlined or work shared. Since fall 2021, we’ve added two new sections to the HBA program as well as launched an MSc Digital Management stream, a Master of Management in Analytics, and a GDip in Sustainability in the MSc program and plans are underway for more program growth. We are already seeing some benefits from the restructuring. Below is a summary of our progress to date and upcoming plans.
What's next
Integration of CEMS across the MSc program
CEMS is one of our leading exchange programs at Ivey that is offered to our MSc, International Business students. Consisting of an alliance of 34 global leading business schools, it offers an opportunity to earn an additional Masters in Management Certificate through a collaboratively designed curriculum and accompanying exchanges. In 2024, the MSc program is pleased to offer CEMS to all three program streams of the MSc.
Critical issues-focused programming
Launch four additional critical issues-focused courses this fall. The new electives we anticipate launching in the 2025 academic year include: Breaking the Bias: Gender and Innovation, Digital Transformation, Sustainability Digital Studio, and AI Fundamentals for Business.
Faculty guide
The launch of a new online Faculty Guide in fall 2024. This site will serve as a key portal for faculty seeking a better understanding of Ivey programs’ policies and procedures, best practices, supports, key contacts, and much more. Consultation on the first draft is ongoing as well as finalizing the hosting format and search tools. If all goes well, it is hoped MS Co-pilot will be a guide for this guide.
Innovation sandbox
As digital technologies and analytics continue to expand across the business landscape, the need for an enhanced teaching tool has emerged. The MSc and MM programs are collaborating with their partners on the Information Technology team to create a secured virtual environment within the Learn (Canvas) platform that will allow faculty and students to safely interact with sensitive client data and expanded software tools so that projects can tackle deeper and more meaningful client issues.
Sense of belonging initiatives
Since we’ve brought the programs staff together in a new way, we are working on initiatives to enhance their working experience, learning opportunities, and deepen relationships/collaboration between staff members to increase the potential for knowledge-sharing, and staff-driven improvement ideas. These are great professional development opportunities for the team.
Cost-savings measures
Continue efforts to reduce costs for program events and services. Examples include:
- Staff and faculty travel savings by better aligning while-you-work program session dates in Toronto;
- Re-evaluation and trimming of while-you-work food and beverage options during residency weeks and Toronto sessions that are underutilized;
- Review of suppliers used across programs. Example: Reduction in orientation costs by adoption of a single vendor for our while-you-work and London-based team-building days across programs; and,
- Savings generated by the in-sourcing of Ivey Field Project client acquisition.
Ivey Career Management
Unlike some business schools where Career Management is a silo, Ivey’s Career Management is integrated into programming and the student journey. For instance, the Career Management Essentials (CME) course for first-year HBA students was recently overhauled and is now an integral part of the Learning Through Action (LTA) curriculum, starting with the September 2023 cohort.
In addition to developing progressive programming that ensures our students are differentiated in the market, efforts are being made to align this programming with Ivey Next. One example is the creation of a dedicated web portal, launched in January 2024, offering HBA, MSc, and MBA students opportunities to experience real-world challenges that might shift their career aspirations toward the critical issues. Since the launch, there have been 2,389 visits to the post-a-job section of the site, which is a 129-per-cent-increase versus a year ago, 199 employment reports have been downloaded, and users have engaged with the new videos 139 times.
Another example is the ongoing work to build EDI best practices into the programming and student/employer communications, which includes new photography that better showcases the diversity of the student body on the web portal. There will be a six-month review of the site to discuss further copy optimizations. In fall 2023, Career Management implemented a process for all Ivey recruiting partners to share information with students about their EDI initiatives, accomplishments, and recruiting practices using the career platform's Diversity Spotlight section. In addition, in February 2024, Career Management implemented new self-identification fields for students to opt in and complete as part of their candidate profile on the career platform. This data enables Career Management to share student information with employers to further their EDI recruitment strategies to attract candidates with diverse perspectives, experiences, and talents.
HBA students participating in O-Week activities
Improving the student experience
To continually enrich our student experience, we need to first understand what matters most to our community.
A big part of our work is taking a holistic approach to our student journey. The program, called inspiring leaders, is underway to challenge us to always improve the student journey and outcomes.
Progress highlights
What's next
Student Experience Action Plan
Take the learnings from the Inspiring Leaders initiative to determine what we will implement and what are our aspirations, which will inform a Student Experience Action Plan. The Action Plan will identify specific targets, timelines, and responsibilities for creating a holistic approach to touchpoints across the student journey. Expected release is June 2024.
Expand pathways for connection
Determine what experiences and pathways for connection would best support Ivey’s student body, as well as how they should be governed, and then work with the students to build these experiences. We are also nurturing the growth of Ivey Pride and the Black Students at Ivey Collective by providing dedicated funding from Student Experience and opening the groups to all students at Ivey. We are developing the framework for a launch in September with new cohorts to be invited at their time of joining Ivey.
Improved HBA1 support meetings
Starting this summer, the academic advisors will meet one-on-one with each HBA1 student to answer any questions prior to the students arriving at Ivey. Having a greater understanding for each student will allow for a more personalized and effective onboarding to the Ivey experience. It will enable the intentional design of proactive supports and earlier engagement for these students.
Group workshops
Offer additional workshops to students on topics such as stress and resilience management and how to balance recruiting and the academic experience.
Transition to the Ivey Alumni Network
Work with Ivey Alumni Relations to offer support and celebratory initiatives as students transition to alumni, particularly in the period immediately after program completion and leading into convocation.
Ivey’s Teaching Scholars l-r: – Mazi Raz, Tiffany Bayley, Karen MacMillan, and Kyle Maclean
Transforming classrooms into innovative learning spaces
It’s not enough just to focus on the here and now, we need to develop learning experiences for the future.
Through our new John F. Wood Centre for Innovation in Business Learning (Wood Centre) led by Zoe Kinias, we are working on teaching innovations and ways to integrate technology and inclusive practices to help create the future of business education.
What's next
Inaugural Wood Centre Symposium
Holding the first annual Wood Centre Symposium at Ivey’s Donald K. Johnson Centre in Toronto on May 23. This year’s Symposium will bring together educators, researchers, and executives actively working on Ivey’s critical issues with a focus on the evolution of work with respect to EDI. The event will focus on learning experiences in academic and corporate spaces and showcase Ivey’s innovations, including the Values Studios and Ivey’s virtual reality project led by Shannon Rawski. It will also include a presentation from Columbia Business School professor Modupe Akinola, and opportunities for those who innovate in this space to immerse themselves for co-creation and future collaborations.
Academic Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) Conference
Hosting the Academic Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) Conference at Ivey’s Donald K. Johnson Centre in Toronto May 21-22, which will bring together professors from leading universities to share materials and practices for teaching EDI.
Virtual learning experience with the Future of Management Education (FOME) Alliance
Co-creating a pilot virtual learning experience with the FOME Alliance called Crisis Management for potential use with Western University’s Business Foundations students.
Digital Learning Experiences
In April 2023, Ivey Publishing launched a series of Digital Learning Experiences (DLEs), which are digitally enhanced cases or courses that include multimedia-rich materials to enhance classroom engagement and learning outcomes. Some of our DLEs are already being used in the Ivey classroom (Examples: Sam’s Pizzeria in HBA, and Learning With Cases in AMBA and MSc) and we are encouraging faculty to develop and use them when possible. To date, 13 DLEs have been published and an additional 10 are in development. Ivey Publishing has also formed a strategic partnership with ESMT (European School of Management and Technology) to publish its DLEs, therefore expanding our digital learning offerings and allowing us to cater to diverse learning styles and topics.