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About the Joint Ph.D. in Management

• Ph.D. Program Office
• Desautels Faculty of Management
• ¿´Æ¬ÊÓƵ University
• 1001 Sherbrooke Street West
• Montreal QC H3A 1G5
• Canada
• Telephone: 514-398-4060
• Fax: 514-398-3876
• Email: phd.mgmt [at] mcgill.ca
• Website: www.mcgill.ca/desautels/programs/phd

The Ph.D. program is offered jointly with three other institutions:

• Concordia University
• John Molson School of Business
• 1450 Guy Street
• Montreal QC H3H 0A1
• Canada
• Website:

• École des Hautes Études Commerciales
• 3000 Chemin de la Cote Ste-Catherine
• Montreal QC H3T 2A7
• Canada
• Website:

• Université du Québec à Montréal
• Département des Sciences Administratives
• 315 Ste-Catherine Est
• Montreal QC H2X 3X2
• Canada
• Website:

The program represents a number of innovations in doctoral work in the field of administration. First, by cooperating, the four universities are able to make available to the program's students a diverse pool of approximately 250 professors qualified to direct doctoral-level study and research. Second, the program has been carefully developed to encourage independent, creative work on the part of its students, with close, personal contact with the professors. This program will appeal especially to the mature, experienced candidate with relatively well-defined interests. Across the four member universities, some courses are offered in English and some in French. (All papers may, however, be written in English or French.) This is viewed as a definite advantage of the program for those students who expect to work in Canada or francophone countries after graduation.

The program places considerable emphasis on the theoretical foundations of management and its underlying disciplines. Graduates of the program are expected to have: (1) some knowledge of all the main areas of management, (2) a thorough knowledge of one applied area of management, and one support discipline, (3) a complete command of the research methodologies used in management, and (4) some familiarity with modern theories and methods of the pedagogy of management.

The program consists of three phases: preparation, specialization, and dissertation.

Preparation – Phase I

Before entering the program, the student will have selected the area of specialization from the following areas/options:

• Accounting
• Finance
• Information Systems
• Marketing
• Operations Management
• Organizational Behaviour
• Strategy and Organization
• NSERC CREATE*
• Environment Option**

Some students—notably those with strong master's degrees in administration or related disciplines—have a minimum of work in Phase I; others require up to one academic year of work.

Specialization – Phase II

In Phase II, students probe deeply into their chosen area of specialization. With their Advisory Committee, students work out an individual program of study, which takes about 18 months. The phase focuses on a specialization area and a support field. The specialization area could be one of the basic ones listed in Phase I (for example, marketing or operations management), a sub-area within one of these (such as organizational development within organizational behaviour), or an interdisciplinary area that combines two or more of these (such as behaviour aspects of accounting or international marketing).

The support field is selected to help the student develop a foundation of knowledge in a fundamental discipline that underlies the theory in administration. For example, a student in marketing might select psychology, sociology, or statistics. One in management policy might select political science or general systems theory, or perhaps even philosophy. Other choices are possible.

Students officially enter Phase II of the program when their Advisory Committee has been established and, together with the student, formally agrees on a proposal for the work to be done in Phase II. The Phase II Form (Advisory Committee) must be approved by the ¿´Æ¬ÊÓƵ and the Joint Doctoral Committees. This includes the following:

• Doctoral seminars in the specialization area; minimum four courses
• Any other existing graduate-level courses in the specialization area and support field deemed appropriate by the Advisory Committee; minimum two courses in support field
• Seminar on Research Methodology (MGMT 707, 3 credits) or equivalent approved graduate-level course
• Seminar in Pedagogy (MGMT 706, 3 credits) or Teaching and Learning in Higher Education (EDPH 689, 3 credits)
• Comprehensive Examination (MGMT 701, 0 credits)
• A publishable research paper (MGMT 720, 3 credits)

The Advisory Committee will normally consist of at least three persons; a Chair and others decided upon jointly by the Chair and the student. One of these members will typically come from the support field. Every student's Advisory Committee must have representation from at least two universities in the joint program.

Dissertation – Phase III

The third phase of the program consists of the dissertation in the course of which the student probes deeply into a well-defined research topic. The topic is developed with the Thesis Committee (at least three members), which may be the same as the Phase II Advisory Committee or may be reconstituted, again with representation from at least one of the other participating universities. The topic is approved formally by the Thesis Advisory Committee and, once the research is completed and the dissertation written, the student publicly defends the completed thesis. The Phase III Form (Advisory Committee) must be approved by the ¿´Æ¬ÊÓƵ and the Joint Doctoral Committees.

* NSERC CREATE Ph.D. option in Healthcare Operations and Information Management – Offered jointly by six Canadian universities: ¿´Æ¬ÊÓƵ, British Columbia, Ottawa, Queen's, Toronto, and Montréal; this Ph.D. program brings together expertise on healthcare processes, operations research, information systems, and telecommunications engineering.