How we gathered the information

SA’s Top MBAs is an annual review published by the FM since 2000. In its early years, it was known as Ranking the MBAs.

Seventeen business schools contributed to market research for this 2021 edition. They were the University of Cape Town’s Graduate School of Business; Durban University of Technology Business School; the University of the Free

State Business School; the University of Pretoria’s Gordon Institute of Business Science; Henley Business School Africa; the University of Limpopo’s Turfloop Graduate School of Leadership;

Management College of Southern Africa; Milpark Business School; Nelson Mandela University Business School; NorthWest University Business School; Regenesys Business School; Regent Business School; Rhodes Business School; Tshwane School for Business & Society, at the Tshwane University of Technology; Unisa Graduate School of Business Leadership; University of Stellenbosch Business School; and Wits Business School.

For the employer view, our researchers questioned 300 companies and organisations whose staff undertake MBA degrees. Of these, 70% were from the private sector, 26% from the public sector, and 4% were nongovernmental or nonprofit organisations.

Among graduates, almost 800, representing all participating business schools, shared opinions of their MBA experiences. Of these, 30% graduated in 2020, 35% in 2019, 23% in 2018 and the remaining 12% before that. About 90% were South Africans, 6% from the rest of Africa, and 4% from elsewhere. Of the graduate participants, 67% were men and 33% women; 8% were aged under 30, 22% 30-34, 27% 35-39, 27% 40-45, and 16% over 45.

Research was conducted by our longtime project partner,

Sylvia Jones, of Lodestar Marketing Research.