Unlike traditional business schools that expect students to choose a specialization early on, the 2+2 program structure of the Ivey Honours of Business Administration (HBA) offers students the freedom to explore their academic interests before choosing their career options. In the first two years, students can study in any faculty or program. This opportunity to gain new life experiences ensures that HBA students and their classmates bring diverse and more seasoned perspectives to their business education. The combination of a deep knowledge of business and another academic or professional field makes for a strong career foundation. Students can apply their first two years of university study at Western to two degrees.

Students in this program will have the option to complete a four year Honours Bachelor of Business Administration or to complete a combined degree with an Honours Bachelor of Business Administration (HBA) or to study for five years and combine the HBA with an Honours Bachelor of Arts. While in their first year at Ivey (HBA 1), students will apply for one of the combined degree programs. If admitted, they will spend their fourth and fifth years of university studying a combination of business courses and required courses in their second degree area. In five years, they will have completed two degrees.

Clear, effective thinking is absolutely essential for dealing with the complexities of the modern world. The study of philosophy helps students perfect analytical and critical reading, writing and reasoning skills through an examination of the works of the world's most celebrated philosophers. The ultimate goal of this study is an understanding of issues fundamental to our nature and the nature of the world we inhabit, including the structure of reality, knowledge, truth, rationality, value, obligation, human nature and the existence of God. The philosophical study of these theoretical and practical problems typically enhances the prospects of those students who wish to pursue law, business, journalism, library science, education or medicine, among other disciplines.