New minors expand access to business education

A business minor allows students to tailor their education to their interests and goals. They can choose to study a subject they are passionate about or to acquire a specialized skill that can jumpstart their career. In fall 2026, the University of Notre Dame’s Mendoza College of Business expanded its offerings of minors to undergraduate business and non-business students, launching two new AI minors and opening its minors in finance and accountancy to all Notre Dame students. “Expanding access to business education is an important step for Mendoza,” said Martijn Cremers, the Martin J. Gillen Dean and Bernard J. Hank Professor of Finance at the Mendoza College of Business. “Opening minors to all Notre Dame students strengthens our commitment to multidisciplinary learning. It enriches the learning environment when business majors take classes side-by-side with non-business majors.” Non-business students can now enroll in eight different business minors:

• Accountancy
• AI Essentials for Business
• Finance
• Foundations of Business
• Impact Consulting
• Innovation & Entrepreneurship
• Marketing
• Real Estate

Business majors now have nine minors available to them:

• Accountancy
• AI Analytics in Business
• AI Essentials in Business
• Business and the Common Good
• Finance
• Impact Consulting
• Innovation and Entrepreneurship
• Marketing
• Real Estate

“Minors allow more students to study business, and they can actually be a career path,” said Kristen Collett-Schmitt, a teaching professor and associate dean for Mendoza’s Undergraduate Program and Specialized Master’s Programs. “Our top recruiters are looking for well-rounded students. They don’t only hire finance, accounting or marketing students.” 

Collett-Schmitt added, “I hear from top employers that while they expect students studying business at Notre Dame to be skilled in their discipline because of the strength of our program, what they really want to see is leadership capacity, teamwork and collaboration. “When students develop an interdisciplinary plan of study by adding a business minor, they build the broad range of skills that recruiters are looking for.” As AI transforms nearly every sector of the economy, Mendoza’s new AI minors help students prepare for the future of work. “Mendoza’s new AI minors reflect our response to rapid shifts in technology and modern business,” said Collett-Schmitt. “We want Notre Dame students to be technically proficient, but we also see a minor as vital to the formation of the whole person. Students won’t only study the technical side of business and AI, but also the ethics behind AI and how to use technology as a force for good.” The two new AI minors are both offered through Mendoza’s Information Technology, Analytics and Operations Department, but they approach technology from very different angles.

• AI Analytics for Business is designed for Mendoza undergraduates who want to go beyond using AI to understand how it works. The minor provides analytically rigorous, technically oriented coursework for students who aspire to develop, evaluate and deploy AI-driven solutions in real business contexts.
• AI Essentials for Business is open to all University of Notre Dame undergraduates. In this minor, students explore how AI is reshaping industries, markets and organizations. They learn about AI ethics and build practical skills, such as prompt design, output evaluation and human-AI collaboration, to integrate AI into professional workflows.

Expanding access to business minors gives more students access to business education, which is in high demand at Notre Dame. But it also enriches the learning experience for all students. “There are synergies in having students from all different majors in the same classroom, studying business,” said Collett-Schmitt, who teaches in the Foundations of Business minor herself. It builds on Notre Dame’s rich tradition of multidisciplinary learning, and students from every disciplinary background bring something unique to the table. “In my experience teaching these classes, business students bring an intuitive understanding of how business decisions are made,” said Collett-Schmitt. “At the same time, many science, engineering and arts and letters students really excel at quantitative skills like finance. When students work together in groups to solve business challenges, it creates a powerful dynamic where every student contributes a unique perspective.”