The SA Business Schools Association (Sabsa) is shedding its "talking heads" image in favour of one of greater value to members. In recent weeks it has run courses for lecturers on case studies, academic articles and becoming supervisors for MBA and doctoral students.
In August it will co-host its first global conference, on governance. It will be held in partnership with the international accreditation agency the Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business.
Sabsa chair Randall Jonas, who is also director of the Nelson Mandela University Business School, says the association made a decision to reinvent itself.
"We asked people to reflect on Sabsa’s purpose and what we stand for," he says.
This led to what he terms the Landau Terrace Statement — named for the Joburg street where Milpark Business School is situated.
Jonas says business schools are determined that Sabsa should talk less and take a more hands-on approach.
But not everyone is convinced it has done so. Just last month, a school director told the FM: "I’m wondering if we should leave Sabsa. We pay a lot of money for not very much in return. I don’t see value."
The recent flurry of courses — and others before them — are intended to provide that value. The courses on case studies and academic articles were aimed primarily at small schools without the resources to run their own.
If we can improve the visibility and credibility of the local sector as a whole, we will
— Anne Wilson
"SA schools are anything but equal," says Jonas.
"We want to help develop faculty at smaller schools, but in a way that every school can benefit. We are here to add value for anyone who wants it."
Covid lockdowns and the shift away from traditional teaching methods have increased the need for central support.
The supervisory programme was intended to plug a sector-wide shortage of academic supervisors. Even Pretoria University’s Gordon Institute of Business Science has had to rein in unprecedented growth in demand for master’s programmes because of the shortage.
Sabsa GM Anne Wilson says more than 200 academics registered for the course.
She says the association also wants to raise the international profile of SA business schools (it already has formal links with several global and national business schools bodies). "It’s up to individual schools to create their own relationships.
"But if we can improve the visibility and credibility of the local sector as a whole, we will," she says.
"The question is always: ‘What can we do collaboratively that we can’t do on our own?’
"As Sabsa, we’re conscious of not stepping on individual schools’ toes."
Vice-chair Catherine Duggan, director of the University of Cape Town’s Graduate School of Business, says well-resourced schools have a responsibility to help others.
"It’s in everyone’s interests to raise the capacity of the SA business schools community," she says.
Lockdowns and changed teaching methods have increased the need for support such as that offered by Sabsa
— What it means:
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