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.
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, including 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.
Recommended background
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.
Minor-only subject
Please note: this subject can only be taken as a minor.
A minor subject can be included in many of our undergraduate degrees. To earn a minor, you typically must complete a minimum of 90 points in that subject, with at least 18 points at the 300-level.
Your minor can be a subject more commonly taken for a different degree. For example, a BCom majoring in Marketing can include Japanese as a minor subject. To include this subject as a minor in your application, first find a major subject through our Subject Search or Study Match.
You can check what’s required to receive the minor accreditation in the programme details below.
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Programme details
Compare programmes for this subject as a major and minor (where available).
A minor subject can be included in many of our undergraduate degrees. To earn a minor, you typically must complete a minimum of 90 points in that subject, with at least 18 points at the 300-level.
Your minor can be a subject more commonly taken for a different degree. For example, a BCom majoring in Marketing can include Japanese as a minor subject. To include this subject as a minor in your application, first find a major subject through our Subject Search or Study Match.
You can check what’s required to receive the minor accreditation in the programme details below.
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 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 |
More information
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Regulations on this page are taken from the 2025 Calendar and supplementary material.
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