Graduate Certificate in Quantitative Business Studies (GCQBS)
The Graduate Certificate in Quantitative Business Studies (GCQBS) is a 15-credit program (5 courses worth 3 credits each) that can be completed on a part-time or full-time basis. Full-time students must pursue 3 or 4 courses per semester while part-time students must pursue 1 or 2 courses per semester. All courses are open to both full-time and part-time students. Courses are offered on weekday evenings and sometimes on Saturdays during the Fall, Winter and Summer terms. There are 2 admission periods per year, one in September, and one in January. Certificate students must enrol in four core courses to complete the program.
Please note the GCQBS option is not open to international students.
What you will learn
The Graduate Certificate in Quantitative Business Studies provides students with the essentials of business data analysis, managerial and financial accounting, the fundamental concepts of finance, and the principles of economics with an emphasis on the role of the decision maker who has to identify and implement profitable decisions.
Upon graduation, students will have acquired essential business knowledge and developed competencies in the quantitative aspects of business administration. Graduate Certificate in Quantitative Business Studies students are required to complete 5 courses (four core courses and one elective).
By graduation, certificate (GCQBS) students will have acquired the skills and knowledge to help them become more efficient and effective managers and administrators. They will be able to:
- Use appropriate statistical techniques to support decision making in various business functions
- Demonstrate an understanding of the basics of financial and managerial accounting
- Read a company’s financial statements and evaluate its financial situation
- Calculate and evaluate the cost of capital for a project
- Explain the risk and return trade-off in making financial decisions
- Apply economic reasoning to business problems to arrive at a profitable decision.
Courses
Program: Graduate Diploma in Business Administration
This course provides students with the skills and knowledge needed to analyze business data. Using spreadsheet software throughout the course, students learn to summarize and describe data with charts, graphs and numbers, to visualize and measure relationships in data and acquire the ability to make inferences and predictions. Students acquire a working knowledge of the statistical tools and techniques required for better decision-making. The course combines lecturing with actual business applications and class discussions aimed at encouraging critical thinking, analytical skills and ethical manipulation and reporting of data.
Prerequisites & notes
Students who have successfully completed a statistics course in a previous program with a minimum grade of “B” may be exempt from taking GDBA 530 with the permission of the Program Director. In this case, the course must be substituted with an elective.
Students who have received credit for GDBA 502 may not take this course for credit.
Program: Graduate Diploma in Business Administration
This course surveys financial and managerial accounting from the point of view of the users of financial information. Financial accounting topics include the framework of financial accounting, the analysis of transactions, and the preparation and analysis of financial statements. Topics in management accounting are budgeting and control, costing and cost allocation, the cost-volume-profit planning model, and short-term and long-term decision-making in business. The ethical dimensions of accounting are explored throughout the course. Pedagogical methods include lectures, exercises, case studies and class discussions.
Prerequisites & notes
Students who have received credit for GDBA 501 may not take this course for credit.
Program: Graduate Diploma in Business Administration
This course provides students with a general understanding of the fundamental concepts of finance as they apply to financial management and investment analysis. Building on the objective of firm value maximization, students learn to describe and value risky financial securities and long-term capital projects as well as to manage the firm’s short-term financial planning and decisions. Pedagogical methods include exercises, cases, simulations and class discussions.
Prerequisites & notes
Prerequisites: GDBA 530 and 532.
Students who have received credit for GDBA 505 may not take this course for credit.
Program: Graduate Diploma in Business Administration
This course introduces the principles of economics. The emphasis is on the role of the decision maker who has to identify and implement profitable decisions. The course applies economic reasoning to business problems including bargaining, adverse selection, moral hazard, and incentive alignment. Pedagogical methods include exercises, cases and class discussions.
Prerequisites & notes
Prerequisites: GDBA 530 previously or concurrently.
Students who have received credit for GDBA 507 may not take this course for credit.
as well as one GDBA elective from the following list:
- GDBA 540 - Entrepreneurship (3 credits)
- GDBA 541 - Business Law (3 credits)
- GDBA 542 - eMarketing (3 credits)
- GDBA 543 - Project Management (3 credits)
