University of Saskatchewan offers new agribusiness degree

Source: Saskatchewan Agriculture and Food

For the first time in the fall 2006 semester, the University of Saskatchewan’s Department of Agricultural Economics is offering students the opportunity to earn a Bachelor of Science in Agribusiness.

The course of study will allow students to develop the key business management, analytical and economics skills necessary to become the agri-food business managers of the future.

According to the department’s course calendar, the Bachelor of Science in Agribusiness degree program is made up of a combination of science, economics, agricultural economics and business courses. Graduates will understand the structure and organization of the agri-food sector, and will learn business skills with particular application to the value chain.

Agricultural Economics department head Jill Hobbs said the impetus for the new degree program came from “a recognition that a lot of students are interested in these areas, but did not have sufficient access to the courses they needed.”

She used the example of students headed into the University of Saskatchewan’s School of Commerce, whose real ambition might be to work in the agri-food sector. “This program provides a blend of core economics along with marketing and research skills in the sector,” she said.

As is the case with most undergraduate degrees, the Bachelor of Science in Agribusiness requires students to take a blend of credits in humanities, fine arts, social sciences and natural sciences during the first two years of their program. In the third and fourth years, the curriculum emphasizes credits in agriculture studies, economics, mathematics, statistics and commerce.

Hobbs said that, to her knowledge, only the University of Guelph in Ontario offers a similar degree program. “We hope to see not only students from across Saskatchewan, but also Alberta, Manitoba and northwestern Ontario,” she stated.

Hobbs indicated that the course of study was partly developed on the basis of surveys of potential employers in the agribusiness sector in Western Canada. “That gave us a sense of what skills they were looking for,” she said. “Students with this degree will be equipped to work through the agricultural value chain at companies involved in feed, supply, chemicals and food processing.”

She also noted that there will be a strong focus on entrepreneurship in the student experience, to encourage graduates to create their own companies in the growing agribusiness field. It is for that reason that students will study areas such as on-farm business models, processing economics, transportation, credit management and marketing.

Hobbs said that everyone at the Department of Agricultural Economics is excited by this new initiative. Targeted enrolment for the first semester of the new Bachelor of Science in Agribusiness is 50 students, with the first graduates expected to receive their degrees at the university’s spring convocation in 2010.

For more information, contact:

Jill Hobbs, Department Head, Department of Agricultural Economics
University of Saskatchewan
Phone: (306) 966-2445