HEC Montréal
AC-2: Learning Outcomes

In 2019, HEC Montréal conducted a consultation with its community to review its mission and to engage in a new strategic planning process. As a result, the school changed its mission to include its engagement toward sustainability and social responsibility. HEC Montréal mission now reads as follows: Building on our excellence in teaching and research, HEC Montréal is a French-language institution open to the world and solidly rooted in Quebec society, that trains management leaders who make a responsible contribution to the success of organizations and to sustainable social development.
The flagship programs, such as BBA, MBA and EMBA, now include mandatory SD and CSR modules, ensuring all students acquire a minimum set of skills and knowledge to be responsible manager in the future. Certificate (undergraduate) and DES (graduate) programs are short term specialized programs, and it is now feasible to include SD learning objectives or outcomes due to their nature.
While learning outcomes in sustainability are not integrated yet for the entire student body, the new missions and strategic planning are setting the tone for a positive change that may come sooner than later.

The figure above is based on the total number of graduates during 3 consecutive semesters, from summer 2019 to winter 2020 (one year only). Only one year was selected to avoid including students in the figure who completed their program before sustainability was made mandatory in the learning objectives in 2018-19. Moreover, new sustainability programs were created in the last 3 years, and student started to graduate in 2019-20 from these programs, making the last 3 semesters more representative of the actual situation than the years before.

The BAA (Bachelor of Business Administration, HEC Montréal flagship undergraduate program), is focusing its mission on some issues related to sustainability, and offer a specialized concentration in sustainability. Students who subscribe to the BAA, even if they don’t subscribe to the sustainability specialization, are expected to learn about cultural and social business environment, and ethics dimensions in business management. Students are also expected to develop an acute opening towards the world and its different cultures in order to become better manager. The BAA graduates account for 20% of HEC’s annual graduate.
MBA students (2% of graduates) are also part of these figures.
HEC’s microprogram (15 credits), DESS program (30 credits) and newly created Master in Management and sustainable development (45 credits) are specifically dedicated to SD. The number of students who graduate annually from these specialized programs represents only 1.1% of HEC's graduate, but subscribers to these programs account for 10% of all graduates specialized program (DES) students.
Finally, missing from this figure is MSc and PhD students who work on sustainable development issue - the structure of research programs does not allow categorizing those who specialize in SD from those who don’t.