Do SA MBAs offer good value for money?

The question is, which offers better value: an MBA or a helping of chocolate pudding? Why do we ask? Because a complete SA MBA degree course costs considerably less than the sweet. True, the latter, offered by an English country-house hotel, is moulded into the shape of a Fabergé egg, contains champagne jelly and edible gold leaf, and is decorated with a small diamond. But at £20,000, or R400,000, that’s four times the cost of some SA programmes, and over 50% more than the most expensive.

At £5,000, a signature London cocktail of vintage cognac and absinthe mixed with bitters outprices two SA degree programmes.

Of course, to most South Africans earning rands, SA MBAs (see table "Money, money, money") aren’t cheap. But they are bargain-basement to northern hemisphere students seeking an overseas experience. Some come here, but not in significant numbers.

That’s why Rhodes Business School director Owen Skae asks whether SA marketers are paying enough attention to the competitive advantages offered by the rand’s lack of value. "I don’t think we use the advantage enough. Australia has made higher education a rich source of foreign revenue for the country. Why can’t we do the same? We offer even better value."

It’s notable that in recent years, private SA schools have begun to overhaul leading state schools in the price stakes.

The University of Stellenbosch Business School has the most expensive MBA (and is the only school to disclose a premium for students from outside Africa), but Regenesys and Milpark have both closed the gap on traditional big-budget schools like the University of Pretoria’s Gordon Institute of Business Science, Henley, Wits Business School and the University of Cape Town Graduate School of Business (GSB).

Given that, unlike most local university schools, neither institution’s MBA programme is yet internationally accredited — something they both hope to correct in coming months — that’s a bold statement of intent.

Neither can yet claim the demand for places enjoyed by more established schools, nor have they breached their reputational leadership among students and employers.

But Regenesys director Penny Law says MBA classes are full and the school has introduced a full-time programme to accommodate students from India. "We are expensive," she says, "but to provide top quality requires big investment. As a private school, we don’t get government subsidies." But then, neither does Regent Business School, which pegs its price at less than a third of that of Regenesys, while the Management College of Southern Africa sits below R100,000.

Milpark dean Cobus Oosthuizen is "so confident about our product that we believe we can ask a premium". The school may also feel emboldened by its takeover this year by the Stadio education investment group.

Market researchers contacted 434 employers and 1,261 graduates for this cover story. Employers, of which 16% were from the public sector, were from across the country. Graduates represented all participating schools.

The accompanying tables are intended to offer potential MBA students a simplified guide to what’s available in SA, with comparisons of costs, student numbers, programme options, programme durations, entry criteria, and the chances of getting into your preferred school.

Nearly three years after the Council on Higher Education (CHE) launched the professional MBA with new entry standards and study requirements, most schools are almost rid of students from the old MBA, so no longer have to run parallel programmes. Given the remarkably generous periods allowed for completion of programmes, however, a few stragglers are likely to be around for some time.

That’s not a problem faced by Johannesburg Business School, whose MBA has been accredited by the CHE but is at least a year away from launch, probably in 2020. Director Lyal White says the school, part of the University of Johannesburg, may pitch the qualification at a younger audience than other schools, which generally demand previous business and management experience. "The MBA is the most oversubscribed qualification in the world," he says. "It’s also 100 years old. We can’t cling blindly to principles from the early 1900s."

Schools say they’re not, though one principle from that age certainly needs to be retained. Robust, thoughtful debate is a core part of the MBA, but in a world of academic "snowflakes" who demand to be protected from ideas they don’t like, it’s becoming harder to maintain in some countries.

"We mustn’t be bullied or silenced by people who don’t like ideas that don’t match their own," says GSB acting director Kosheek Sewchurran. "Different ideas are the basis of wisdom and honesty."

Fulu Netswera, director of North-West University’s (NWU) School of Business & Governance, is also seeking wisdom. He has to transform his school’s overwhelmingly white faculty without appearing to do so. The Potchefstroom-based school already has one international accreditation and hopes soon to add a second, so Netswera, who was appointed this year, must ensure that new black academics are at least as good as the white ones already in place.

His immediate priority is to fill half a dozen academic vacancies with black SA candidates. But they are in short supply across all higher educational institutions. Netswera doesn’t want to plug holes with staff from other African countries, but he may have to.

He is also investigating whether his school’s MBA can be offered through the University of Botswana. NWU’s Mahikeng campus already services a number of Botswana students and, if red tape allows, this could be extended through an arrangement with the national university. "We would like to partner," says Netswera.