18.5 Program of Study

1. The M.E.R. program consists of 36 credit hours of course work. This includes 30 credit hours of required courses and 6 credit hours of elective courses. The required courses are specified in Master of Employment Relations Required Courses and elective courses are specified in Master of Employment Relations Elective Courses.

2. The required courses introduce students to the three main areas of study in the program: labour-management relations; human resources management; and labour market and social policy analysis.

3. The two electives must be chosen from the list of approved electives specified in . Other courses may be approved and added to by the Dean of Graduate Studies on the recommendation of the Director.

4. Students are responsible for fulfilling all prerequisites and may require special permission from the Department offering an elective to enrol in the course.

5. The Research Seminar in Employment Relations provides students with both quantitative and qualitative research skills and requires the identification of a research problem, the development and execution of a methodology appropriate to addressing the problem, analysis of results, and completion of final report. The Research Seminar involves 3 credit hours of course work in each of the Fall, Winter, and Spring semesters.

6. The prerequisites for EMRE 6030 and EMRE 6040 are EMRE 6010 and EMRE 6020. In addition, students will normally complete six M.E.R. courses before registering for EMRE 6030 or EMRE 6040. There are no prerequisites for EMRE 6010 and EMRE 6020 but students are advised to take these courses late in their programs, just before taking EMRE 6030 or EMRE 6040. For the core courses, the prerequisite for BUS1 9329 is BUS1 8210. For the remaining core courses, there are no prerequisites. For the elective courses, Departmental regulations that specify particular courses as prerequisites will apply but the Departmental requirement to have completed a number of courses will not apply.

7. Exemptions for a maximum of two required courses may be granted by the Dean of Graduate Studies on the recommendation of the Director if students have completed relevant courses taken at this or another recognized university and if students achieve a minimum of 75% in those courses. EMRE courses are not normally eligible for exemption requests.

8. Each student's program of study must be approved by the Director. The Director reserves the right to restrict students from taking particular courses if it is deemed that those courses do not add sufficient value beyond courses that the student has completed at the undergraduate level. In cases such as these the Director will require the student to take substitute courses from Master of Employment Relations Elective Courses. The Director also reserves the right to require students to take additional courses if it is deemed that a student is lacking sufficient background in one of the three areas of study noted in 2. above.