Grow analytics skills to produce valued business insights.
The minor in Business Analytics is an excellent pairing for Commerce majors, although it can be taken alongside most other majors.
All modern organisations, including businesses, generate and store huge amounts of data that needs to be systematically analysed to extract useful insights. These insights are instrumental for good decision making. By taking this minor you will learn how to conduct data analysis – clean, manipulate, visualise, model and communicate data.
The skills and knowledge you learn in this minor can be applied across a variety of domains, including accounting, finance, economics, marketing, tourism, sports science, linguistics, psychology, zoology, ecology and health.
Why study Business Analytics?
According to Forbes, 94 per cent of enterprises surveyed noted that data analysis was key to their business growth and digital transformation.
The Business Analytics minor will teach students to apply analytics skills and techniques to organisational data to obtain actionable insights. The papers in this minor will develop sought-after skills that are required in every area of business including accounting, finance, marketing, management, economics and tourism.
Background required
There are no prerequisites except a desire to learn techniques and skills to extract insights from business data. This minor will suit anyone who has an interest in data and computing.
Teaching style
Since this is a practically oriented discipline, there is an emphasis on a “hands-on” approach to analysing data and extracting insights. The papers cover a set of core analytical skills, techniques and tools, which are applied in a business context.
Core analytics skills including data cleaning, wrangling, visualisation and reporting are paramount, as are their domain-specific applications – analysing specific business problems based on available data and proposing solutions using learned techniques. Data analytics concepts and techniques are delivered through lectures, labs, tutorials and practical workshops.
Students taking the minor will learn these skills through three core papers. Through these papers the students will be exposed to commonly used data analysis platforms, incuding Excel, R and Python, and relevant techniques. The knowledge and skills acquired in these courses will be put to practice and extended by taking two further papers (one 200- and one 300-level paper) that are in one or more business domains (e.g., accounting, finance or economics). In this way the minor spans disciplines at the Otago Business School.
Career opportunities
There is a range of opportunities available for students who pursue the Business Analytics minor.
The main pathway is that of a data analyst or business intelligence analyst – for example, in specific domains such as marketing or finance, which would also be the major pursued. Other specific roles may include marketing analyst, CRM analyst, financial analyst and HR analyst.
Course advisers can help you plan a personalised minor through the selection of the two non-core papers to specialise in specific domains, such as accounting analytics and financial analytics.
Minor subject requirements
Business Analytics as a minor subject for a BA, MusB, BPA, BTheol, BSc, BAppSc, BCom, BEntr, BHealSc, BACom, BASc or BComSc degree
Available as a minor subject for a Bachelor of Arts (BA), Bachelor of Music (MusB), Bachelor of Performing Arts (BPA), Bachelor of Theology (BTheol), Bachelor of Science (BSc), Bachelor of Applied Science (BAppSc), Bachelor of Commerce (BCom), Bachelor of Entrepreneurship (BEntr), Bachelor of Health Science (BHealSc), Bachelor of Arts and Commerce (BACom), Bachelor of Arts and Science (BASc) or Bachelor of Commerce and Science (BComSc) degree
| Level | Papers | Points |
|---|---|---|
| 100-level | INFO 130 Fundamentals and practice of spreadsheets COMP 120 Practical Data Science | 18 18 |
| 200-level | INFO 204 Introduction to Data Science | 18 18 |
| 300-level | One of INFO 304, ACCT 306, ACCT 310, ACCT 360, FINC 302 or ECON 375 | 18 |
Note: Students should check the prerequisites for 200- and 300-level papers when selecting papers. | ||
| Total | 90 |
Key information for future students
Contact us
Department of Information Science
Tel +64 3 479 8142
Email infoscience@otago.ac.nz
