The UCT Graduate School of Business (GSB) is currently accepting applications for the 2017 academic year and will be hosting information sessions locally and internationally from May to October. These information sessions are designed to give prospective students an opportunity to find out more about the GSB, its world-class academic programme and competitive strengths.
“The GSB’s programmes, which include the MBA, Executive MBA, MCom in Development Finance, MPhil in Inclusive Innovation, Post-graduate Diploma in Management Practice, and a PhD programme, are particularly sought-after in South Africa,” says Segran Nair, Director of Open Academic Programmes at the GSB. “Each year we receive so many applications – many of them from international students or students in the rest of Africa - that we have had to introduce two application dates and a waiting list.”
There are around 14,000 business schools globally, and South Africa has several that are accredited internationally, but the GSB being one of just three schools in Africa that is “triple-crowned” meaning they have been endorsed by the three leading global accreditation bodies: the Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business (AACSB), Association of MBAs (AMBA) and the European Foundation for Management Development (EQUIS).
“We pride ourselves on being a world-class university, but being firmly rooted on African soil,” says Nair. “This means we need to represent the market we are serving, hence each year we strive to recruit a diverse cohort of students representative of race, gender and nationality.
“A new world needs new ideas, and tapping into diversity is one of the quickest ways to ensure a rich resource for new ideas.”
Nair says, South African business schools also offer a unique fusion of traditional and African wisdom and theory that provides the ideal platform to prepare for today’s global workplace.
“If we are to drive economic growth in Africa, then we need to train innovators in all industries that are geared towards creating solutions that will work in the context of an emerging market,” comments Nair.
Director of the UCT Graduate School of Business, Professor Walter Baets, says ‘business as usual’ is no longer the way to achieve sustainable success – people need an expanded skill set that creates new models of business and the UCT Graduate School of Business provides these skills through its Open Academic Programmes.
“We see our role as enablers of new ways of thinking and behaving. We also understand that emerging economy business is confronted by a high degree of uncertainty, complexity, and often excessive situations of inequality,” says Baets. “Such a world needs innovative solutions. We are therefore focusing our energies on becoming a leading business school in the paradigm of the emerging economy, both in our research and our teaching.”
Applications for the GSB’s Open Academic Programmes open in May 2016. For queries or more information on the call 0860 UCTGSB (828472) alternatively +27 21 406 1922 (int) or visit: http://www.gsb.uct.ac.za/infosessions.
