Master of Business Administration - Frequently asked questions

MBA stands for Master of Business Administration. An MBA is an internationally recognized graduate level degree usually pursued by professionals with some work experience. Gaining an MBA education further develops and cultivates business acumen essential for advancement into the C-suite of business. An MBA concentrates on key management areas that affect organizational performance: leadership, strategy, analytics, human resources, finance, marketing, operations, and information technology.

Earning a master’s in business administration (MBA) can help business professionals to enhance their career opportunities, receive increased compensation, and job advancement opportunities. It also has great utility across industries: healthcare, government, not-for-profit, etc.

Flexibility is one major advantage. Taking your MBA online offers a unique, customizable learning experience that is tailored to your lifestyle and time commitments. Athabasca University’s flexible, 24-hour, online format allows you to complete your coursework from home, work, or even while travelling. Because our students don’t reside in one physical location there is greater opportunity to connect with experienced managers and leaders from a vast array of differing industries all across Canada and around the world. AU’s online MBA is built to enhance peer-learning and collaboration, there is ample opportunity for students to interact and participate in discussions and group work.

AU's MBA for executives program is designed for the mid-career (or higher) managers and leaders. Applicants need to demonstrate a significant amount of management and decision-making authority experience to be accepted into the program. Managerial experience includes managing either people (direct reports), projects, budgets, or a combination of these.

The minimum years of required managerial experience years will depend on the following:

• if you have an undergraduate degree (3 years experience required), or,
• 1 of the approved professional designations (5 years required), or
• no degree or approved designation (8+ years required)

Please visit MBA entry routes for more details.

There are 2 reasons why we require management experience in our MBA program. Firstly, we want to ensure learners are at the right stage of their career and have enough real-life examples to add to the learning environment and their fellow cohorts' learning. Secondly, our MBA program focuses on putting theories into practice. Learners must be able to connect their learning to what is happening in the real world and their workplace, applying their new knowledge and abilities as they go. Applicants are assessed to see if they are in a position within their organizations to contribute real-life examples rather than hypothetical ones and connect the managerial skills covered in the MBA courses to their daily work.

If you do not have enough managerial experience at this time, please consider our graduate-level Leadership and Management Development (LMD) online courses. They could be an option to continue your education while gaining more managerial experience for the MBA. Moreover, should you apply and be accepted to the MBA program in the future, three LMD courses can be transferred to one online 3-credit MBA elective course.

Athabasca’s MBA for executives has three routes of entry:

• An undergraduate degree, plus three years of managerial experience (managerial experience must demonstrate progressive responsibility and should include managing people, projects, or budgets, or any combination of these), or
• An accepted professional designation (i.e. CPA, CGA, PBA, etc.), plus five years of managerial experience, or
• Eight years of managerial experience.

There is also an accelerated path if you have:

• An undergraduate degree in business that has been completed in the last 10 years,
• A GPA of 3.0 or higher (for the last 60 credits taken), and
• A minimum of three years of managerial experience.

A master’s degree is the first level of graduate study. To apply for a master’s degree, one must typically have an undergraduate degree (a bachelor’s degree) or another qualifying credential. A master’s degree can be obtained in a variety of fields such as; a master of arts (MA), master of science (MSc), or master of business administration (MBA).

Graduate degrees are the next level in higher education and succeed a master’s degree. One must customarily have either a bachelor’s degree or an advanced diploma to attend graduate school. A graduate degree can be either a master’s degree or a doctorate degree, the highest level of academic degree.

There are three student intakes per year for the AU online MBA for executives program: Winter, Spring, and Fall. Each intake of students is assigned a Student Services Coordinator who is their main administrative contact throughout the program.

All online MBA courses are paced, meaning there are scheduled start and end dates, and assignment deadlines within each course. Students in each intake progress through the program’s core courses as a cohort. Courses are also asynchronous—meaning you are never required to be online at a particular time.

Plan to spend 20 – 25 hours per week on your studies.

All courses (core and elective) are eight weeks long and three (3) credits* (with the exception of some six-credit, ten week in-residence electives). The applied project is nine (9) credits, to be completed within a five-month period. The MBA is 48 credits total.

Many MBA programs can be taken part-time. The AU MBA program is designed to fit around your professional and personal life, and requires 20-25 hours of study/casework/group discussion per week. Because of the intensity of each course, only one 8-week course is taken at a time with a break between each course. Canada Revenue recognizes AU MBA students as full-time students for every month they are enrolled in a course.

Usual program completion time is two and one-half to three years; the program must be completed in five years.

If you’ve completed your business degree in the last 10 years, you may qualify for accelerated entry and complete your degree in as little as 19 months.

The Athabasca University online MBA for executives is broken up into two phases.

The first phase consists of six core courses that build on each other:

• Strategic Management
• Human Resource Management
• Financial and Managerial Accounting
• Marketing Management
• Managerial Economics and Quantitative Analysis
• Operations Management

These six courses are then capped by a week-long comprehensive exam (completed online).

The second phase consists of four advanced core courses:

• Information Technology Strategy
• Corporate Finance
• Strategy and Organizational Analysis
• Managerial Ethics and Decision Making

Also required are 18 elective credits that may be obtained in two ways:

• Six, three-credit courses, or
• Three, three-credit courses and a nine-credit applied project.

All AU MBA students must complete at least 1 in-residence elective, often referred to as a blended elective*, as it is delivered using a combination of online or in-person formats. You can choose from an 8-week, 3-credit course or a 10-week, 6-credit course.

The in-person format is usually 5 days long and held in a major Canadian city.

*The delivery method may vary depending on the elective course. Students are expected to be present and available for the synchronous component/activity in the course.

3-credit in-residence electives are designed for completion over an eight-week period. This typically requires students to complete preparatory work consisting of readings, participation in course applications, and a short assignment in the first three weeks, followed by an intensive week-long, in-residence session. In most cases, in-residence courses will focus on both individual and group work and, in all cases, will require completion of an individual assignment during the four weeks following the in-residence week.

6-credit in-residence electives are designed for completion over a ten-week period. The workload is the equivalent of taking one 3-credit online elective plus one 3-credit in-residence elective at the same time. As a bonus, although you have an intense and heavy workload during the course, you can complete it and earn 6 credits in a condensed period of time.

Please visit the current elective schedule for more information.

No. The accelerated program recognizes previous academic preparation so, while managerial experience is required to meet our entrance requirements to the MBA program, it will not compensate for any lack of required qualifications to the accelerated admission route.

Yes, both lead to an MBA. The only difference will be the number of credits that show on your transcript.

You must have all Post Secondary transcripts sent to us from all of the institutions your attended, not just the last one.

The review committee will evaluate your undergraduate courses to make sure the appropriate foundational business areas are covered. In general, these areas include: human resource management, accounting, finance, macroeconomics, microeconomics, statistics, management information systems, marketing, organizational behaviour, organizational theory/analysis, and operations management. Strategy and ethics are not in the list as they are covered in the accelerated program.

If you are missing one or two core areas, you may still be considered for the program at the discretion of the admission committee, subject to taking additional courses.

Yes, you can apply if you feel that your undergraduate (bachelor level) degree is a business degree, even though its name is not the same as a traditional business degree. The admission committee will consider all the courses taken in the degree to determine if the degree is a business degree in substance comparable to other traditional business degrees. In general, to be recognized as a business degree, we expect the majority of courses taken to be in business and related areas. (Please see also the question above on “If I have a business degree, does it matter which courses I have completed?”)

Yes, you can apply. We will evaluate your undergraduate courses to make sure that you have covered the appropriate foundational academic material (see “If I have a business degree, does it matter which courses I have completed?” above).

Refer to AU’s Undergraduate Grading Policy.

A 3.0 GPA is equivalent to a B average or 73%.

You will have a maximum of 4 years.

Yes, if you have your transcripts assessed by one of our acceptable assessment services and your degree is deemed equivalent to a similar degree in Canada.

(See the ‘Transcripts’ tab under Admissions for details).

Yes, you will automatically be considered for the regular Online MBA for Executives program admission route if you do not meet the more specific accelerated program requirements.

The reason we would like to have a degree obtained within the last ten years is to ensure the business contents of the program are not outdated. If an applicant’s business program took much longer than that of a regular situation, or the program involved transferred in credits for courses taken a long time ago, the admission committee will consider the situation individually and may require the taking of additional courses for those subject areas that were taken long ago.

The GPA calculations are based on the last 60 credits taken, if transferred credits were involved in obtaining the last 60 credits of the business degree, the course grades involved for those credits will be considered in the GPA calculations.

All AU MBA students must complete at least one in-residence elective, often referred to as a blended elective, as they are delivered with a blend of online and face-to-face formats. Choose from eight week, three credit courses or ten-week, six credit courses, each containing five days of very intense face-to-face instruction*.

These courses include online course work, readings, group assignments, and a major individual assignment. Learning is anchored by the week in-residence. In-residence electives are offered throughout the year in major centres across Canada including Vancouver, Calgary, Edmonton, Toronto, Ottawa, and Halifax. They are also offered in at least one international location each year. Some past international locations have been Singapore, Brazil, Germany, Mexico, England, Ireland, and the U.S.

*The delivery method may vary depending on the elective course. Students are expected to be present and available for the synchronous component/activity in the course.

3-credit in-residence electives are designed for completion over an eight-week period. This typically requires students to complete preparatory work consisting of readings, participation in course applications, and a short assignment in the first three weeks, followed by an intensive week-long, in-residence session. In most cases, in-residence courses will focus on both individual and group work and, in all cases, will require completion of an individual assignment during the four weeks following the in-residence week.

6-credit in-residence electives are designed for completion over a ten-week period. The workload is the equivalent of taking one 3-credit online elective plus one 3-credit in-residence elective at the same time. As a bonus, although you have an intense and heavy workload during the course, you can complete it and earn 6 credits in a condensed period of time.