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The Integrated Business and Humanities (IBH) program blends traditional business education with the critical thinking and communication skills of the Humanities. Designed to produce the next generation of Canadian business leaders with the skills to take on a new economy in a complex world, our program features a variety of learning opportunities through coursework and experiential activities.

As an Integrated Business and Humanities student, you will blend traditional business education with the critical thinking and communication skills of the Humanities. IBH students seek to use organizations of all types to drive social, ecological, and economic change.

 

Leadership

In first year, you go through a leadership assessment that will serve as a foundation for your leadership development. Throughout the four years of the program, you will receive coaching and participate in leadership workshops. In fourth year, you reflect on your leadership journey and think about the role leadership will have on your career path.

Community Engagement

You will complete field studies on a topic you are passionate about while interacting with businesses from the local community. Through a combination of experiential learning and research, you will gain an understanding of issues at the intersection of business and community.

Global Mindedness

A background in Humanities provides you with the skills and knowledge to recognize, understand, and constructively engage with complex social needs and diverse perspectives. With your background in Business, you will develop ways to solve those problems. In Global Business Experience, you will work with students in South Africa, assisting a local social entrepreneur.

Social Enterprise

You are introduced to and further explore the concept of social enterprise in your first and second year. In third and fourth year, you will take courses on social entrepreneurship, strategic management for for-profit and non-profit organizations, and a capstone on social enterprise.

 

 

Program Statistics

AACSB Accredited

Only 5% of the business schools in the world attain this standard of excellence

A blue duotone image of a McMaster student representative talking to parents at the Ontario Universities Fair

$43,800

Average internship program salary

DeGroote works with many local and national companies to provide our students with the best paid internship opportunities possible. Some of the companies that hire our students include:

  • ArcelorMittal
  • Brownlow Partners
  • Celestica
  • Deloitte
  • Dyson Canada
  • edsembli
  • Ford Motor Company of Canada
  • Geotab
  • Hamilton Health Sciences
  • Islamic Relief Canada
  • Jaguar Landrover
  • KPMG
  • L3Harris
  • Laurentian Bank
  • New Balance Canada
  • OMERS
  • Parkland Corporation
  • RBC
  • Sanofi Pasteur
  • SC Johnson & Son
  • SOTI Inc.
  • Stelco
  • Taylor Leibow
  • Wells Fargo

Internships are typically done after your 3rd year of study and are typically 12 months in length.

McLean Centre for Collaborative Discovery

The DeGroote School of Business resides on McMaster University’s main campus, centrally located in the Westdale neighbourhood of Hamilton, Ontario. It is a historic campus with 300 acres of conservation space at the western end of Lake Ontario. Hamilton is one of the largest cities in Canada, meaning plenty of opportunities to explore the arts, culture, and natural beauty of the city while pursuing your degree.

DeGroote students will soon find a new home on the McMaster University campus, the McLean Centre for Collaborative Discovery (MCCD). This 10-storey building will be the premiere destination for students across McMaster to discover, learn, and collaborate to solve business problems.

Your Classes

What You’ll Take:

  • Financial Accounting (IBH 1AA3)
  • Perspectives on Canadian Business (IBH 1AB3)
  • Introduction to Language and Society (IBH 1AC3)
  • IBH in the Community (IBH 1AD3)
  • Organizational Behaviour (IBH 1BA3)
  • Leadership and Development (IBH 1LD0)
  • Insight and Inquiry: Questions to Change the World (IBH 1BB3)
  • Fundamentals of Ethics (IBH 1BC3)
  • Introduction to Peace Studies for IBH (IBH 1BD3)
  • Introductory to Microeconomics (ECON 1B03)
  • Introductory to Macroecomonimcs (ECON 1BB3)

Learn more about your IBH I program requirements.

Year 2

  • Leadership Development – Leadership Emergence
  • Introduction to Marketing
  • Information Systems in Management
  • Talent Management
  • Statistical Data Analysis
  • Critical Thinking
  • Global Business Experience
  • Managerial Accounting
  • Introduction to Finance
  • Moral Issues
  • History of Capitalism
  • If pursuing IBH with internship, Career Development Course – COMMERCE 2IN0 is required

Year 3

  • Leadership Development – Leadership Effectiveness
  • Relationship Management
  • Applied Marketing Management
  • Corporate Finance
  • Cross-Cultural Communication
  • Understanding Entrepreneurship and Social Entrepreneurship from a Historical and Theoretical Lens
  • Organizational Strategy
  • Poverty, Privilege and Protest in Canadian History
  • Interpersonal Communication
  • Operations Management
  • One open elective (Commerce or non-Commerce)

Year 4

  • Leadership Development – Leadership Capstone
  • Critical Seeing
  • Social Entrepreneurship Capstone
  • Community Engaged Capstone
  • Six open electives (Commerce or non-Commerce)

For detailed course lists beyond your first year, visit your academic calendar here.

For a full list of courses that can be available in this program, please consult the academic calendar.

Admissions