The Local Government Program’s Graduate Diploma in Public Administration is an interdisciplinary professional development program for mid-career managers who work in a local government environment. It is the only program of its kind in Canada. The program combines rigorous academic instruction with a hands-on, case-study approach. The objectives of the program are to: a) give students a broad-based, academically grounded understanding of the structure and operation of local government in Ontario and Canada; b) foster strong research, analytical, writing and verbal expression skills grounded in social science methods; and c) substantially enhance students’ ability to be effective, ethical, creative and strategic managers in local government. The program, which is usually taken on a part-time basis, consists of four courses: Advanced Local Government, Policy Process in Local Government, Organizational Behaviour, and Local Government Management. In addition, all students complete a final, Faculty-supervised independent Research Report of about 30 pages in length.

The proposed Graduate Diploma in Business Skills for Actuaries and Financial Professionals is a Type 3 diploma program, designed for early-career actuaries, risk managers and financial professionals seeking to accelerate their career paths through enhanced business skills. The GDip is offered by the Department of Statistical and Actuarial Sciences in the Faculty of Science and the School of Graduate and Postdoctoral Studies.

The professional Master of Media in Journalism and Communication (MMJC) provides training for a broad spectrum of students interested in employment in the expanding fields of media production, content creation, journalism, communications-related fields and civil society. Recognizing that the journalism industry and media landscape are experiencing great change, this one-year program looks to the future by building upon and enhancing Western’s traditional strengths in storytelling. This innovative offering reflects current employment realities: the career trajectory of many media professionals encompasses both journalism and communication-related fields. The program will enable graduates to understand the underlying principles of media production, analyze changes in the field, and develop learning techniques that will not wed them to specific technologies. This range of core skill courses in communications and journalism, taught through integrated media platforms, will be augmented by courses in areas of expertise at the Faculty of Information and Media Studies, such as: data mining, video production, information policy, and health communications & reporting.

The Graduate Diploma in Accounting (GDip) is the post-undergraduate component of Western University’s CPA-Accredited programs (Ivey and DAN).  Building on Ivey and DAN’s undergraduate components, the GDip provides a structured set of courses to allow students to acquire the more advanced technical and enabling competencies prescribed in the CPA Competency Map and Knowledge Supplement that are required to be certified as a CPA.  Students who successfully complete both the undergraduate component, or the equivalent, and the Graduate Diploma component of the CPA-Accredited program will gain advanced standing in the CPA Professional Education Program (CPA PEP).  Specifically, they will be exempted from CPA PEP’s two Core and two Elective modules and will only be required to successfully complete the two Capstone modules in order to become eligible to attempt the CPA Profession’s national qualifying examination known as the Common Final Examination (CFE).

The GDip is 13 weeks in length and consists of five mandatory courses. The five courses have been specifically designed to bridge the competencies that students developed at the undergraduate level into those required for advanced standing in CPA PEP.

The MMASc program is a 12-month, course-based, interdisciplinary program that includes an internship or Major Research Project. It is designed to enhance and link the academic and professional skills of BSc or BA graduates who will be highly qualified to enter the private or public-sector workforce with the academic and professional qualifications to assume leadership positions. The program is offered jointly by our Faculties of Science, Medicine & Dentistry, the DAN Management and Organizational Studies Program in the Faculty of Social Science, Arts & Humanities, and will eventually involve other faculties including the Faculty of Media and Information Studies. As the program grows, we anticipate the addition of more Faculties, and fields within those Faculties. This program is designed to prepare graduates to move into the business world with leadership and entrepreneurship skills that resonate with rapidly evolving careers – and some positions not yet even conceived – in government, NGOs, private industry or self employment.
The program is structured as a ‘hub and spoke’ model, with management and communications forming the hub and the fields of biological sciences, water sciences and biochemistry forming the spokes. Students will participate both in onsite courses and either an experiential learning opportunity (ELO) or a major research paper (MRP). The ELO will occur with an industry partner. A capstone event brings together students following their ELO or MRP, providing them with an opportunity to share their experiences.

The Graduate Diploma (GDip) in Professional Communication and Management is a two-term (eight month) course-based diploma program designed to enhance the professional skills of graduates of any undergraduate program, and to develop creative and visionary leaders. The program is jointly offered by the Dan Management and Organizational Studies Program in the Faculty of Social Science, the Department of English and Writing Studies in the Faculty of Arts & Humanities, the Faculty of Information and Media Studies, and the School of Graduate & Postdoctoral Studies. Unique in Canada, this interdisciplinary program gives students the opportunity to combine core skills in leadership and business with the development of professional communication skills.

The MA program in Ancient Philosophy is a two-year (five-term) interdisciplinary program that  combines courses in Philosophy with courses in Ancient Greek and Latin in order to develop students’ skills and knowledge in these areas as preparation for continued study at the PhD level. This program  is primarily course based, but includes a substantial research component via the graduate seminars in Philosophy and through the Summer Research Paper undertaken in the summer between the two academic years of the program.

The program provides students with the philosophical and philological skills necessary for researching and writing a dissertation in Ancient Philosophy at the doctoral level. These include the ability to reconstruct, analyze and critically assess philosophical arguments on the basis of careful study of the text in the original language; the skills for interpreting the text in its literary, cultural and historical context; familiarity with the general philological issues of the state and condition of the ancient texts, their reconstruction by scholars since the Renaissance, and the conventions of this scholarship; and how to engage the contemporary scholarly conversation in Ancient Philosophy and identify opportunities in it for future contribution at the doctoral level and beyond.

The MPH program hosted by the Schulich School of Medicine & Dentistry will deliver innovative case method learning that will develop public health professionals, leaders and change agents who are equipped with the knowledge and skills to address public health needs in Canada and beyond. The overall goal of the program is to provide an academically rigorous graduate-level public health education to health practitioners, managers, researchers and others engaged in public health that will prepare them as future leaders in public health at national and international levels. This program is designed to fill a novel niche at the intersection of leadership, sustainability and policy within the Canadian healthcare system and globally.

The Doctor of Education(EdD) is a professional doctorate that prepares students for academic, administrative, clinical, or research positions in educational, civil and private organizations. This is a full-time program housed within the Faculty of Education. It will prepare educators and other professionals for the application of appropriate and specific practices, the generation of new knowledge and the stewardship of the profession. This program is innovative, current and practitioner-oriented, designed to facilitate future and current professionals to develop the knowledge, skills and dispositions to solve authentic problems of practice and succeed in educational and other professional positions.

The Master in Professional Education is designed to prepare candidates for professional and/or management leadership roles in Education. Through situating the program within a practitioner-scholar approach, students will develop competencies in consuming and creating research and applying knowledge and techniques to solve authentic problems of practice. Students will experience a program solidly embedded within the adult learning literature and employing signature inductive pedagogies and pedagogical tools, an in-situ opportunity designed to facilitate the application of research and theoretical knowledge, a participatory culture, technologies to map knowledge and knowledge-producing systems through distance and other delivery frameworks, and a cohort model constructed on the principles underlying communities.