Meet Ivey’s MBA Class of 2022

And the Class of 2022 doesn’t just support each other. Shamsa Hidayat calls her peers a “community with a social conscience.” This virtue, she says, took center stage after a local Muslim family suffered a “xenophobic act.”

“My cohort came together in various ways; some helped show support by offering a shoulder to their Muslim colleagues; others channeled their emotions by supporting Muslim-owned restaurants. My colleagues even volunteered to provide business support to a scholarship fund to honour the deceased. While most students who attend Ivey stay in London for no longer than a year, our class showed their care and support to London and its diverse communities by going out of their way and channeling their efforts to work in a sustained manner to help discourage systemic racism.”

A CLASS PROFILE

Despite the restrictions imposed in Canada from COVID, the class has still managed to come together, adds Temi Busari. “We have people from many countries with different cultures and religions, yet we have created a safe space where everyone is respected and cared for. We are still learning from home due to COVID restrictions, but we have found interesting ways to bond online and safely offline. We have had movie nights, game nights, walks in the park, and musical concerts via Zoom, which help us bond and provide an all-round interesting experience to the program.”

By the numbers, the Ivey MBA Class of 2022 is comprised of 161 students. The program received 800 applications, ultimately accepting 30% of candidates (with another 10% deferring to a future year). The class is international in scope, with students hailing from 24 countries and speaking 28 languages. Overall, 27% of the class comes from outside Canada. Another 38.5% of the class is women. The class ranges in age from 24-35 and average 5.5 years of work experience. The class’ GMAT scores also run from 520-760.

The largest segment of the class — 18% — worked in Finance and Insurance most recently. The Consulting industry accounts for 12% of the class, followed by Technology (8%), Healthcare (7%), Marketing and Advertising (6%), and Energy and Utilities (6%). The rest of the class includes representatives from Tourism and Leisure, Manufacturing, Engineering, Consumer Goods, Accounting, Telecommunications, and Not-For-Profits.

Academically, a third of the class majored in Business as undergrads. STEM is also well-represented in the Class of 2022, with Engineering and the Sciences accounting for 25% and 16% of the class respectively. The Arts take up a 14% share of the class followed by 12% falling into a catch-all ‘Other’ category.

Such numbers fall within a long-standing Ivey tradition: attracting achievers from diverse backgrounds. It was a program feature that impressed alumni like Kathryn Donville, a researcher and synchronized skater who made P&Q’s MBA To Watch list in 2021.

“I was so pleased to show up on my first day of school and learn that my classmates really were from around the world and from a variety of professions,” she tells P&Q. “I was slightly worried that my class would be filled with simply accountants and CFAs, with only a few people from other professions. However, I was delighted to find classmates who had past experience in tech, politics, non-profits, fashion, film production, entrepreneurship, and even an Olympic athlete!”

 A Q&A WITH THE IVEY MBA FACULTY DIRECTOR

This diversity is just one of Ivey’s distinct advantages in the MBA marketplace. Last month, P&Q posed questions to Larry Menor, faculty director for Ivey’s MBA program, to learn more about the Ivey experience. From the case method to the Ivey Field Project, here are some of the unique features of the MBA program.

P&Q: What has been the biggest news at the Ivey full-time MBA over the past year? How will these development benefit future MBA students?

Menor: “The biggest opportunity that the Ivey full-time MBA Program has embraced was the need to adapt educational content and delivery in the face of COVID-19. The most immediate change for the better outcome was the collective experimentation with, and embracing of, technology-mediated educational means (e.g., virtual only, hybrid delivery, as well as blended learning materials). This led to the discovery of suitably engaging discussion environments and approaches that allow for faculty-to-student and student-to-student shared learning experiences akin to what was achieved previously solely through in-person interactions.”

P&Q: What are the three differentiating features of your full-time MBA program? How do each of these enrich the learning of your MBA students?

Menor:

“(1) Educating with Cases: In contrast to most faculty teaching in MBA programs that instruct with cases, Ivey’s faculty are adept at educating with cases whereby they draw out shared-learning insights from students in order to generate in real time meaningful advancements in business knowledge and abilities. This ability to educate with cases is further enhanced given that many of the cases discussed were produced by the same faculty teaching in the MBA program.

(2) Ivey’s Engaged Alumni Network: Whether to engage through in-class discussions or out-of-class learning and networking opportunities, many individuals in Ivey’s alumni network can be counted upon to share their experiences and insights to further current students’ understanding of past, present, and future business phenomena and challenges.

(3) MBA Program Fundamentals: Ivey’s articulated MBA program objective and related cohort, curriculum, and career priorities—along with the MBA program culture blueprint—provide explicit guidance to all members of the MBA community on what their responsibilities are to ensure that they thrive throughout the transformative educational and transition experience.”

P&Q: What is your most popular elective? Why does it attract so many of your MBA students?

Menor: “Negotiations. According to the elective course’s instructor, Fernando Olivera, “My sense is that our MBAs recognize that negotiations skills are really essential both professionally and personally. This is a skill-building course that is designed as simulations covering wide range of negotiation scenarios such as purchasing supplies, negotiating a job offer, negotiating with multiple parties, with unions, and so on.  Perhaps the most important feature of the course is that it emphasizes how negotiations can be used to resolve conflicts, build relationships and create value. These are critical skills in today’s environment.”

P&Q: Give us some examples of the Ivey Field Projects the Class of 2022 is doing this year? What have students told you are the best parts of this experience?

Menor: “The Ivey Field Project (IFP) has two primary goals. First, the IFP sets out to provide teams of students with a memorable integrative “live case study” learning experience intended to advance their applied business leadership capabilities. Second, the IFP aims to assist organizations through obtaining fresh, unbiased student teams insights on significant business issues, strategic opportunities, operational problems, or organizational challenges. Through the IFP, companies receive professional guidance from MBA students possessing a variety of business skill sets and whose efforts are supervised by world-class business educators and industry leading Executives-in-Residence.

IFP is the largest and longest-running field program of its kind in Canada. Since the early 1950s students from the Ivey Business School have consulted to more than 4,000 companies around the world. This year’s class is still at the stage where projects are being formulated and developed. Also, projects are subject to non-disclosure agreements, making it difficult to discuss details of the projects.”

P&Q: In recent years, there are several areas that have gained increased prominence in business school programming: STEM, Analytics, Artificial Intelligence, and Digital Disruption. How does Ivey integrate these concepts across its curriculum?

Menor: “The areas specified represent business phenomena that can be incorporated into the MBA program curriculum as specific elective courses (e.g., Competing with Analytics, Social Media Analytics & Digital Marketing, Technology and Humanity), as themes for out-of-class learning opportunities (e.g., the MBA Class of 2022 Showcase on “Disruptions and the new (next) normal for society, individuals, and institutions functioning”), or as learning contexts that underpin case studies written by, or other engaging learning activities conceived by, Ivey’s faculty.”

Next Page: In-depth Profiles of the Class of 2022