THE JUNIORS MUSCLE IN
When it comes to reputation and market perception, established schools used to have all their own way. Not any more
SA business schools can help repel the colonialist attitudes displayed by the likes of disgraced UK public relations firm Bell Pottinger, says Jon Foster-pedley, dean of Henley Business School in Johannesburg. Bell Pottinger, which stoked SA racial tensions in exchange for 30 pieces of silver from a Gupta-linked company, would not dare behave like that in a Western market, says Foster-pedley. “But this is Africa. What they have done suggests they see people here as inferior; that what happens to them because of the it firm’s activities matters less than it would in other countries.”
In fact, he says, SA is anything but second class. Henley in SA is responsible for more than half the MBA graduates produced globally by the Henley network, including its UK base. Students at every Henley campus follow the same programme and write the same exams, which are marked by the same examiners.
“We can prove to people in Europe that the business, sporting and academic talent we have in this country is world class,” says Foster-pedley. “MBAS are only the tip of the iceberg.”
Henley is not alone in raising the bar. Nearly half of SA’S MBA programmes are now internationally accredited by the London-based Association of MBAS.
Half the remainder are in the process of following suit.
Institutions such as the Gordon Institute of Business Science (Gibs) and the university business schools at Cape Town, Stellenbosch and Wits, have been sought-after partners for leading international schools for years. Now others are enjoying the benefits.
Rhodes Business School director Owen Skae says: “I have nonstop invitations to partner schools in India, the Netherlands, China, Brazil, Russia . . . you name it. Mainly they want collaborative research and exchange programmes involving faculty and students. But we can’t be partners with everyone.”
Private schools such as Regenesys, the Management College of Southern Africa and Regent also report increased interest from beyond SA.
There have been hiccups. Segran Nair, MBA head at the University of Cape Town’s Graduate School of Business (GSB), says #Feesmustfall protests at SA universities have given some foreign students pause before studying here. “People taking a year off to travel to SA for a full-time MBA see these violent images on TV and naturally wonder if they will graduate and get their degree,” he says. “We have to explain to them the distinction between us and the main university campus, which is where the protests took place.”
There are signs, within the country too, that traditionally “junior” schools are making accelerated headway. In the early years of Ranking the MBAS, the “big four” schools enjoyed a healthy reputational lead over the rest of the field. That is not the case any longer.
Among employers, Gibs remains top dog for both its MBA and overall activities. Stel-