A Degree of Recognition - Financial Mail MBA  Ranking Article

Welsh-born former rugby referee John Powell is dreaming of the Triple Crown. But it has nothing to do with the 15-a-side game. Rather, he is pursuing the triple accreditation crown for Stellenbosch University Business School, of which he is director.

The school has already been acknowledged by the UK-based Association of MBAs (Amba) and the Equis accreditation arm of the European Foundation for management  Development in Brussels. Now Powell says it has cleared the first hurdles for acceptance by the US-based Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business (AACSB). Success will confirm his view that Stellenbosch is “unquestionably” SA ’s leading business school.

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If only it were so simple. Wits Business School, Cape Town University’s Graduate School of Business (GSB) and the Gordon Institute of Business Science (Gibs), each of which has at least one international accreditation, could all argue their case. And what about Henley Management College, which has enjoyed triple-crown status for years through its UK parent?

Even the popular view that SA ’s four university schools are a cut or two above the rest is often challenged. Some smaller schools argue that because all local MBA  providers meet accreditation criteria set by the Council on Higher Education (CHE), programmes are all equal.

That’s clearly not so. All CHE approval means is that programmes have met minimum standards. Some, having hauled themselves over the qualifying bar, have made little progress since. Others, setting their own ambitious targets, have raced ahead. Most of SA ’s MBA  providers acknowledge that for their qualifications to gain real currency, further acceptance is needed. Amba accreditation is a common target.

For many of SA’s would-be corporate ladder-climbers, however, that is the least of their worries. One of the big advantages of international accreditation is that your qualification is recognised anywhere in the world. But only 16% of MBA graduates questioned for our rankings named international mobility as their chief reason for study.

Business education and the advancement of personal skills are the main motives, by some distance. They are also the most likely to be fulfilled. It is reassuring that financial reward and job  promotion are becoming less important. As our tables show, the expectation of money and power is seldom realised. Most employers don’t pay MBAs more.

That realisation may make some people think twice about enrolling for an MBA. Henley GM Fran Connaway argues that too many South Africans undertake MBAs when they should rather be pursuing general management education. With MBA programmes costing between R43000 and R166000, it becomes harder to justify the outlay if the likelihood of a salary return on investment is diminished.

Some of those price tags have risen considerably. A couple of schools have cut their course fee slightly this year from 2009. But mainly it has risen . Stellenbosch, which was considerably cheaper than its direct competition, has inflicted the biggest increase, 46%. It is followed by Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University (NMMU) with 31%, Rhodes 18%, Cape Town and Henley 15% and Wits 13%.

A number of schools have complained in the past that fees don’t cover the cost of MBA courses and that they have to cross-subsidise from their profitable executive education programmes. NMMU’s 31% increase appears to have been guided partly by its ambition to be perceived as a premium product. Last year it was the cheapest of our ranked programmes. School director Piet Naude says: “That’s not where we want to be. If you want to make a quality statement, you must price accordingly.”

There’s a long way to go before NMMU, or indeed any of the pack, share the “premium” tag currently enjoyed by the traditional market leaders. According to the 300 companies polled for this ranking, Cape Town’s MBA has the best reputation in the SA business world: 21% of companies consider it top. Stellenbosch, rated best overall business school by the same companies earlier this year, is the closest challenger, with 18%.