'MBAs must reflect SA reality'
Richard Mantu
12 November 2004
The content of the Masters in Business Administration degrees offered by institutions need to train managers to understand the challenges of the country and the continent.
This was said by the Council of Higher Education (CHE) in a report released in Pretoria on Wednesday after a process to re-accredit MBA institutions in the country.
The council this year released a list of re-accredited institutions to offer the degrees after a two-year review following concerns about the proliferation of institutions offering the degrees.
The process was aimed at determining whether the quality of the MBAs met the minimum standards of the Higher Education Quality Committee in relation to postgraduate programmes.
Only six institutions were fully re-accredited with 12 being conditionally re-accredited and 10 had their accreditation for MBA programmes withdrawn.
There are now 37 MBA programmes being offered in the country.
In a
report titled 'The State of the provision of MBA in SA', the CHE said the institutions needed to review the content of the MBA programmes they offered in training efficient managers in different fields of the economy.
This included having a curriculum that addresses the content needs of managers in the private sector, civil society and government.
Director of monitoring and evaluation at CHE Lis Lange, told academics, government officials and directors of MBA schools that the institutions needed to strike a balance to find a multidisciplinary approach of applying research skills to equip students with tools of analysis and synthesis.
Lange said this meant equipping MBA students with relevant educational training content such as triple bottom line responsibility, social justice and being able to apply what they have learned in the context of contributing towards the development of a democratic South Africa.
"From the point of view of the MBA programmes,
the expectation that they will produce CEOs, specialist managers of specific economic sectors or industries ... might lure business schools into offering [the MBA programmes]."
But she said specialisations were too thin to produce specific skills and competencies and that undermined the core general competencies expected of MBA graduates.
The challenge of MBA schools, said the report, was "how to be faithful to the contents of a postgraduate business management programme and yet remain relevant for local society".
The report also said most MBA programmes showed weak research production at faculty level and an undervalued place for research in the education of managers, which undermined the institutions' capacity to renew programme content.
It added that despite progress in opening access to women and black people, the student profile was still largely white and male.
However, Prem Naidoo of HEQC said although the programme had not "lost its
prestige" the questions was where a student acquired this and whether the institution was accredited.
Source: BuaNews
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