A PROBLEM THAT SOLVED ITSELF?

With the overwhelming number of MBA students today being black, some business schools believe affirmative selection is no longer necessary. Others disagree

Increasing the number of black MBA students has long been a goal of local business schools. Now, with black students in an overwhelming majority, many say affirmative selection is no longer necessary. There is also debate over the need to continue with a programme that reserves up to 10% of places for people without the requisite academic qualifications.

As recently as 20 years ago, many MBA classrooms were strikingly white. That has changed. Of the 6,050 South African students now studying for an MBA at the 17 schools taking part in our research, 4,510 — almost 75% — are black.

Da Vinci Business School CEO HB Klopper believes schools should continue to increase their black ratios “because black students are still underrepresented in the corporate world and an MBA degree can help them to close this gap”.

Klopper appears to be in a minority. Rhodes Business School director Owen Skae acknowledges the need for the student body to be “diverse, equitable and inclusive”, but he doesn’t believe schools “need to be specific in proactive recruitment of black students, as the numbers show that the MBA is a degree of choice for black professionals”.

Wits Business School (WBS) acting MBA director Mills Soko says: “We have no quota for blacks or whites. The demographics take care of themselves.”

At Henley Africa about 68% of students enrolled now are black —“a level that was reached several years ago and has been organically maintained”, says dean Jon Foster-Pedley. Women account for about half of those students — in line with the average at other schools.

Kobus Jonker, director of the Tshwane School for Business & Society, says the challenge lies not in attracting black stu