The 72 students who began Ivey’s MSc in Management: International Business today might be expecting engaging course work and experiential global business learning – and they’d be right – but they might not be expecting how much they’ll change through this experience.
At a welcome event where the incoming Class of 2026 students got to know each other and learn more about the program, MSc Program Faculty Director Warren Ritchie encouraged them to embrace the opportunity to transform who they are and how they impact the world and others.
“Your MSc journey is more than the sum of the courses; it is a chance to step into a new potential you. You are going to learn from the courses. You are going to learn from the interactions. You are going to learn from every exchange. And based on that learning, you are going to take actions that you wouldn’t have thought to take,” Ritchie told the students. “It will change who you are and how you do things … your character, your approach to transformation, and how you deal with ambiguity … You will gain a sense of why you are different and why that’s valuable.”
Sharing insights from a previous cohort’s feedback, Ritchie said the program shapes students into inclusive, collaborative leaders who can navigate change, take risks, and move organizations forward in disruptive environments by giving them hands-on experience in the technical and human elements of organizational transformation.
“That’s how we make you fearless about change – it’s through these experiences,” he said.
That sentiment was echoed by Darren Meister, Associate Dean of Programs and founding director of the Ivey MSc program, who also addressed the students and discussed his experience teaching Ivey’s first MSc class in 2010. Noting how the students forged lifetime relationships, he encouraged the incoming students to embrace their differences and learn from each other because that will broaden who they are.
“At first, you will be so conscious of your differences, but you are going to contribute and you are going to learn from each other and, before you know it, you are going to be who you are … By building the trust where we don’t see the differences, but instead we see the ability to learn from each other, is going to be incredible,” he said. “Have that opportunity to embrace what you do and embrace the year … take those chances and take those risks … and you are going to come out the other end an Ivey alum and your future will be a little brighter and a little clearer.”
Ivey’s new MSc students come from a variety of backgrounds. Here’s a look at the MSc Class of 2026 by the numbers.
