Double Major in Business Administration and Agriculture
Rationale, Outline & Details
August 2012
1.
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Summary ............................................................................................................................ 1
Potential career opportunities for graduates ...................................................................... 1
Courses .............................................................................................................................. 2
Defining Agricultural Studies .............................................................................................. 4
Process & Scheduling ........................................................................................................ 7
GPA Requirements ............................................................................................................. 8
Trends in Business/Agriculture Degree Combinations ....................................................... 8
Precedents.......................................................................................................................... 9
Intentions .......................................................................................................................... 11
Rationale for Double Major in Business and Agriculture
1.
Summary
This document outlines the rationale for a new four-year double major in Business and
Agriculture offered by Providence University College.
This double major is designed to give students the opportunity to develop the knowledge,
skills, and character need to succeed in a career in agri-business and farming, with a
particular focus on rural Manitoba, with a particular focus on acquiring the knowledge,
skills, and character needed to succeed in this career.
Over a four-year period, a student pursuing this double major will take 40 courses (120
hours), 10 through University of Manitoba’s Faculty of Agricultural and Food Sciences,
and 30 through Providence University College. Fifteen of the Providence courses will
from the Business Administration program, while the other 15 will be foundational
courses from the Providence undergraduate program.
The formal title for the degree granted at the end of this course of studies would be:

BA (Advanced) with a double major in Business Administration and Agriculture
Intake for this new program begins in the Fall 2012 semester.
2.
Potential career opportunities for graduates
There is a broad spectrum of career opportunities available for students who graduate
from Providence University College with a double major in Business and Agriculture:

Start their own rural business

Begin a management career in an established agribusinesses

Return to the family farm

Begin a career in a rurally-focused service firms (including accounting firms,
banks, credit unions, and financial advising firms) providing services to the
agribusiness sector

Begin a career in the civil service focusing on rural policy or agricultural services

Begin a career with one of the many international NGO’s and church service
organizations which focus on business and agricultural development
As well, at some point they may wish to pursue further studies in:

Business and management
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Rationale for Double Major in Business and Agriculture
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3.
Economics
Public policy
Food sciences, including agronomy, plant sciences, animal sciences
Courses
Students will take a minimum of 40 courses (120 credit hours) during their four years of
study—30 through Providence and 10 through the University of Manitoba.
3.1.
BUSINESS
Students will take 15 courses (45 credit hours) of business courses:
3.2.
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471.11 Introduction to Management
471.13 Introduction to Business
471.12 Business Communications
472.12 Organizational Behaviour
473.11 Economics 1: Micro
473.12 Economics 2: Macro
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471.21 Fundamentals of Marketing
471.23 Business/Government Relations
472.21 Introduction to Management Science
472.24 Human Resource Management
473.23 Introductory Financial Accounting
473.24 Introductory Managerial Accounting

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471.34 Commercial Law
473.32 Corporate Finance

472.42 Strategic Management & Policy
AGRICULTURE
Students will take 10 courses (30 credit hours) of agriculture courses at the University of
Manitoba’s Faculty of Agricultural and Food Sciences during their four years of
undergraduate education.
As with any major, they would need to take introductory, intermediate, and senior
courses. These would be divided:



A maximum of three courses (9 credit hours) of introductory (first year) courses
Four to five courses (12 to 15 credit hours) of intermediate (second and third year)
courses
A minimum of two courses (6 credit hours) of senior (fourth year) courses
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Rationale for Double Major in Business and Agriculture
Two typical course lists follow.
3.2.1.
3.2.2.
3.3.
Preparing for a career in agribusiness
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ABIZ 1000 (A02) Introduction to Agribusiness Management -- Agricultural
ABIZ 1000 Introduction to Agribusiness Management - Term Two
ABIZ 1010 Economics of World Food Issues and Policies
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ABIZ 2390 Introduction to Environmental Economics
ABIZ 2510 Introduction to Agricultural and Food Marketing
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ABIZ 3500 Agricultural and Food Policy
ABIZ 3520 Food Distribution and International Merchandising
ABIZ 3540 Financial Risk Management
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ABIZ 4260 Price Analysis
ABIZ 4500 Agribusiness Strategies Seminar
Returning to a (non-livestock) family farm:
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ABIZ 1000 (A02) Introduction to Agribusiness Management – Agricultural
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PLNT 2500 Crop Production
PLNT 2510 Fundamentals of Horticulture
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PLNT 3510 Cropping Systems
PLNT 3540 Weed Science
SOIL 3600 Soils and Landscapes in Our Environment
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ANSC 4410 / PLNT 4410 Grassland Agriculture: Plant, Animal and Environment
BIOE 4520 Crop Preservation and Handling
PLNT 4270 Plant Disease Control
SOIL 4510 Soil and Water Management
GENERAL STUDIES
Students will take 15 courses (45 credit hours) of general studies courses:
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212.11 English Composition or 312.13 Critical Thinking
222.11 Psychology 1 or 223.11 Sociology 1
233.11 Computer Usage 1 or 233.12 Computer Usage 2
421.11 International Development and Missions
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117.11 Christian Spirituality I: Formations
121.11 Introduction to the Bible & Christian Theology I
121.12 Introduction to the Bible & Christian Theology 2
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Rationale for Double Major in Business and Agriculture
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Four additional Biblical & Theological Studies electives (12 credit hours)
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213.22 Ethics
213.32 Ethics in the Marketplace
221.21 Statistical Analysis
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One Music or Theatre elective
They will also complete five field education projects over their four years.
4.
Defining Agricultural Studies
Modern agricultural studies is a broad collection of disciplines. In North America, it is
grounded both historically and conceptually in the large-scale production of food.
Historically, in western Canada (just as in American agricultural regions) institutions
focusing on agricultural studies were foundational colleges of public universities, often
playing a powerful role within the emerging higher education systems in the early 20th
century. The University of Manitoba campus is situated were it is, in part, because that
was the site of the Agricultural College.
Conceptually, agricultural studies has defined its core discipline as a science. The
University of Manitoba’s Faculty of Agricultural and Food Science articulates its
mission1 as providing:
…leadership in education and research by advancing the knowledge and
understanding of science related to production, processing, preservation
and marketing of food and other agricultural products…
Agricultural studies was not always a broad discipline. For the first half of the 20th
century, agricultural studies in western Canada focused on domestic food production—on
applying science to the increasing of food yields from the region’s agricultural land.
After World War II, the focus of the discipline expanded to include international food
production, as agricultural researchers sought to contribute to the “green revolution” in
the “third world”. In recent decades, agricultural studies has been undergoing a broad
redefinition of its fields of interest, expanding to include economics, business, ecology,
international development, and environmental studies.
The University of Saskatchewan’s College of Agriculture and Bioresources defines its
areas of study as:2
1
See http://umanitoba.ca/afs/overview.html.
2
University of Saskatchewan Faculty of Agriculture and Bioresources. http://agbio.usask.ca/about.
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Rationale for Double Major in Business and Agriculture

Sustainable Production Systems
o safe and high-quality food and bio-based products produced by
efficient and globally competitive agriculture and forestry sectors in
alignment with other natural resource development.
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Environment, Ecology, Community
o responsible management of soil, water and biotic resources provides
improved economic opportunity and quality of life, especially for
people in rural areas.

Safe Food Supply and Bioproducts
o safe, nutritious and affordable food, beverages and wellness products –
as well as bio-based industrial and pharmaceutical products derived
from renewable resources – required to meet the demands of a healthy
and growing world population.
This expansion of the discipline reveals itself in institutional restructuring. For example:
Agricultural, Food and Nutritional Science (AFNS) at the University of
Alberta is a unique department, the first of its kind in North America,
reflecting the integration of many disciplines across Agriculture, Food and
Nutrition.3
It also results in the proliferation of degree offerings. For example, the University of
British Columbia’s Faculty of Land and Food Systems4 offers three different degrees
with 10 different majors:
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Food Nutrition and Health:
o Dietetics
o Food Market Analysis
o Food Science
o Nutritional Sciences
o Food & Nutritional Sciences
o Food, Nutrition & Health

Applied Biology:
o Applied Animal Biology
o Applied Plant and Soil Sciences
o Food and the Environment
3
University of Alberta Department of Agricultural, Food and Nutritional Science.
http://www.ales.ualberta.ca/afns/.
4
University of British Columbia Faculty of Land and Food Systems. http://www.landfood.ubc.ca/about-us.
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Rationale for Double Major in Business and Agriculture

Global Resource Systems5
It seems unlikely that this broadening of scope has reached an end-point. At the
University of Manitoba, for example, the Department of Agriculture still has considerable
scope for expansion of focus and integration with related disciplines before it approaches
the breadth of a program like that at UBC. And even a program as broad as UBC’s has
potential to integrate other disciplines into its undergraduate agriculture programs that are
currently largely ignored in agricultural studies, including:
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agriculturally-based energy production, organic recycling infrastructures, and
agriculture/forestry interfaces
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aquaculture
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international food-supply-chain logistics
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community gardens, farm-share programs, fair-trade agri-“business”, and foodbank infrastructure

the consumer-based “agricultures” of ornamental gardening, personal food
production, lawn care, and cut-flower production, transportation and sale
This broadening of scope within agricultural studies represents an opportunity for
Providence.
If agricultural studies were still focused only on food production per se, a double major in
business and agriculture could run the risk of being little more than a degree in “how to
make money growing stuff”. However, with the breadth of interests within agricultural
studies, and the situating of business within a broadly-defined liberal arts curriculum that
Providence offers, a double major in these two disciplines allows for a rich and varied
scope of studies for students.
While they could choose to focus on developing the knowledge and skills needed to
succeed as the owner of a family farm, they could, for example, also use this double
major to develop their understanding of:

the relationship between the ideas inherent in the social gospel and the reality of
food production, processing, marketing, and consumption in Canada

the current and potential roles of social entrepreneurship6 in missions
5
And within these majors, agricultural studies often offers a dizzying array of further specializations and
focuses. See, for example, the possibilities for focus within UBC’s Global Resource Systems
(http://www.landfood.ubc.ca/undergraduate/programs/grs), includes linkages to disciplines as disparate as
“gender” and “wine science”.
6
For overviews of social entrepreneurship, see:
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Rationale for Double Major in Business and Agriculture
5.
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the appropriate role of local financial institutions in the development of
sustainable agriculturally-based communities
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management in export-focused agribusiness
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roles of government policies in rural development
Process & Scheduling
Once the student and the advisors have agreed on the appropriate courses for a particular
student, the student will be responsible for registering for the courses at the University of
Manitoba institution, for paying for those courses directly to the University of Manitoba.
Each student will have the option of either:


Taking agriculture courses throughout the four years of the degree
Taking them over any two semesters during their four-year course of studies
Some (but not all) of the required courses could be taken during the summer, as
intersession courses, or as evening courses. Scheduling will be arranged between the
student and the two advisors.
Providence and the University of Manitoba will be jointly responsible for ensuring that
the proper authorization letters and transcripts are transferred between the two
institutions.
5.1.
DECLARATION OF MAJOR
A student wishing to pursue a double major in Business and Agriculture to indicate their
intentions on their application to Providence University College.
All Providence students formally declare their major after they have completed at least
one semester of courses—ideally no later than the end of their first year at Providence.

Ashoka Innovators for the Public. What is a Social Entrepreneur?
http://www.ashoka.org/social_entrepreneur.

Center for the Advancement of Social Entrepreneurship, Fuqua School of Business, Duke
University. http://www.caseatduke.org/.

Dees, J. Gregory. October 31, 1998. The Meaning of “Social Entrepreneurship”.
http://www.redalmarza.com/ing/pdf/TheMeaningofSocialEntrepreneurship.pdf.
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Rationale for Double Major in Business and Agriculture
6.
GPA Requirements
Students must have an AGPA of 3.0 or higher in order to declare this double major. They
must maintain an AGPA of no less than 2.5 in order to receive the degree.
Providence currently draws a significant portion of its students from rural Manitoba, and
many of these come from farming backgrounds. Students have expressed strong interest
in returning to rural Manitoba. That preference exists for a variety of reasons, including a
preference for a “rural lifestyle” over an urban one, a desire to stay close to family, and
an interest in the careers available.
Part of our responsibility as a University College is to prepare those students to be able to
thrive in, and contribute to, those rural communities. This double major focuses directly
on one of the foundations of the long-term viability of those communities—a financiallyviable agricultural sector.
7.
Trends in Business/Agriculture Degree Combinations
A review of other higher educational institutions reveals that programs of study
combining business and agricultural studies are fairly common, particularly in institutions
with a rural focus.

The University of Guelph offers Food and Agricultural Business as one of its
concentration options in its 4-year Bachelor of Commerce program. (This
program is probably the closest to what is being proposed at Providence of the
programs reviewed. It does not, however, have the Providence distinctives of a
strong liberal arts and BTS emphasis.)7
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Guelph also offers a joint masters’ program in Food and Agribusiness.8
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The University of Saskatchewan offers a BSc in Agribusiness as well as graduate
studies in the field.9
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The University of Alberta offers a joint MBA/Masters of Agriculture degree,
although nothing at the undergraduate level.10
Undergraduate programs combining business and agriculture are particularly common in
Midwest American state universities. A few examples:
7
http://www.uoguelph.ca/registrar/calendars/undergraduate/current/c10/c10bcomm-fab.shtml
8
http://www.oac.uoguelph.ca/future/graduate/food-agribusiness.cfm
9
http://explore.usask.ca/programs/ag/agribusiness. http://agbio.usask.ca/index.php?page=brp-graduate.
10
http://www.business.ualberta.ca/Programs/TheAlbertaMBA/DegreePrograms/MAG.aspx.
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Rationale for Double Major in Business and Agriculture

North Dakota State University offers a variety of undergraduate programs
combining business and agricultural studies, including an Agribusiness Degree.11

University of Minnesota offers an Agricultural and Food Business Management
Major in its Department of Applied Economics.12
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Colorado State offers a degree in agribusiness.13
They are not, however, confined only to the Midwest US:
8.

Cornell University offers a double major combining Applied Economics &
Management with Agriculture.14

University of New England offers a double Bachelor’s in Agriculture and
Business.15
Precedents
This initiative has some of the features of the 4-year Business Administration (Honours)
degree offered by Providence University College in conjunction with the University of
Winnipeg and Trinity Western University. It also has some of the features of
Providence’s arrangement with Harv’s Air in offering our double major in Business and
Aviation. Finally, it has some similarities with the double majors offered internally at
Providence University College already, such as the double major in Business and Music,
or the double major in Business and Communications & Media.
8.1.
SIMILARITIES WITH HONOURS DEGREE ARRANGEMENT
In some ways, this initiative is similar to the option within Providence’s Business
Administration program of a 4-year Business Administration (Honours) degree offered in
conjunction with the University of Winnipeg and Trinity Western University.
The crucial difference between this proposal and the Honours (U of W or Trinity pairing)
degree is that the agriculture courses could be taken throughout the 4 years of the degree,
rather than in a single year after 3 years at Providence.
11
http://www.ext.nodak.edu/homepages/aedept/recruit/agribusdescr.htm.
12
http://www.apec.umn.edu/undergraduateprogram/ProspectiveStudents/AgriculturalandFoodBusinessManag
ementmajor/index.htm.
13
http://dare.colostate.edu/undergrad/agbus.aspx.
14
http://dyson.cornell.edu/undergrad/index.php.
15
http://www.une.edu.au/courses/courses/BAGBUS.
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Rationale for Double Major in Business and Agriculture
As with the 4th year of the Honours degree, which courses the student would take would
be agreed between the student, their Providence faculty advisor, and an advisor from the
partner faculty.
8.2.
SIMILARITIES WITH HARV’S AIR ARRANGEMENT
Providence University College offers an aviation major in partnership with Harv’s Air16.

A detailed course listing of a double major in Business and Aviation can be
found at
http://businessadministration.prov.ca/double_majors/Business_Aviation_double_
major_courses.pdf.
The flying instruction happens at Harv’s (primarily at their airfield in Steinbach), while
the ground instruction is split between the Steinbach location and the Providence campus
in Otterburne.
The Business and Agriculture double major would be similar to the Harv’s Air
arrangement in that specialized training takes place off-campus at a partnering institution.
There are, however, many differences, including the fact that the agriculture portion of
the double major outlined here takes place at another academic institution, rather than at a
vocationally-based training facility.
8.3.
SIMILARITIES WITH OTHER DOUBLE MAJORS
Providence’s Business Administration program is paired with a number of other majors at
Providence University College, including a double major with Communications & Media
and a double major with Music.

A overview of these double majors can be found at
http://www.providenceuc.ca/college/programs/business_administration/degrees/#

A detailed course listing of a double major in Business & Communications/Media
can be found at
http://businessadministration.prov.ca/double_majors/Business_Communications
Media_double_major_courses.pdf.

A detailed course listing of a double major in Business & Music can be found at
http://businessadministration.prov.ca/double_majors/Business_Music_double_ma
jor_courses.pdf
This double major is similar to these other double majors in that it prepares people to
succeed in careers which straddle two disciplines. The primary difference lies in that
these double majors are done “in-house” at Providence, while the double major with
Agriculture would be offered with a partnering institution.
16
http://www.harvsair.com/
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Rationale for Double Major in Business and Agriculture
9.
Intentions
The intention of this initiative is not to establish a stand-alone major in agriculture that
would be treated like any other undergraduate major at Providence. We are not offering a
BA with a major only in agriculture.
As well, it is not the intention to have an agriculture double major that would be paired
with every other major at Providence (a double major in Biblical & Theological Studies
and Agriculture, for example). This may well be a good idea at some point for some
programs, but that is not what is being established here. Instead, this double major is
being established as an off-shoot of a Business Administration degree.
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