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Every year, a select number of students from across the country graduate with both an MBA and a masters degree in another equally - or even more - demanding discipline. McGill University, for example, offers a dual medicine and MBA program as well as a dual MBA and law degree. The University of Toronto's Faculty of Law and Rotman School of Management also have a dual law and business degree. Its Faculty of Applied Science and Engineering works with Rotman to deliver the Jeffrey Skoll BASc/MBA. At the University of Alberta, the dual MBA degrees include engineering, law, agriculture and forestry, a unique program in the country that prepares graduates for leadership roles in the forestry sector.

Dual MBA degrees, says Jeff Muzzerall, director of the Corporate Connection Centre at the Rotman School, attract individuals who will likely be tomorrow's leaders. In fact, having tracked his school's graduates, he says that within just a few years, most of them are either in a leadership position or heading their own entrepreneurial venture.

These programs tend to attract the crème de la crème. Every year, Desautels Faculty of Management of McGill University accepts some 65 students to its MBA program. "And we bring in one to three MD/MBA students and two to three into the law program," says Don Melville, director of MBA and Masters Programs at the Desautels Faculty of Management...

Over at McGill, the curriculum vitae of MD/MBA classmates Jordan Isenberg and Artem Luhovy, who are both in their 20s and hold MSc degrees, are already hefty. Mr. Isenberg has worked as policy advisor to the CEO of the McGill University Health Centre and a UN technical advisor for Guatemala. This summer he did an internship in the U.K., working for the director of the sustainability unit at the National Health Service.

Both are working on their dual degrees because they want to be doctors and because they are passionate about making a difference in improving Canada's health-care system. "By pursuing an education in business and medicine, I thought I'd have more well-rounded ideas on how to apply both perspectives and knowledge to improvements in our healthcare system," says Luhovy, who already has countless innovative ideas for how to do just that. And so does Mr. Isenberg. "There's a ton of stuff that can be done to address the issues," says Mr. Isenberg. Soon, he'll have the two degrees, two perspectives and two knowledge bases completed to help him get started.

Read full article: , September 27, 2011