Business schools hoping to win international accreditation for their MBA degrees had better move quickly. The door is about to close.
The Association of MBAs (Amba) is approaching its ceiling of 300 accredited programmes. Once it gets there, there’s no way in for newcomers unless one of the established schools drops out.
"It’s one out, one in," says Amba CEO Andrew Main Wilson.
By the end of September, the London-based organisation will have 283 accredited schools. More are in the approval pipeline.
Main Wilson says the decision to limit numbers is driven by the need to protect quality and exclusivity.
Amba schools are found in 57 countries. Of the eight SA schools that have made the grade, only Milpark is from the private sector. Another, Henley Africa, is a subsidiary of a UK school. The other six are all SA university schools — from Cape Town, Nelson Mandela, North-West, Pretoria (the Gordon Institute of Business Science), Rhodes, Stellenbosch and Wits.
Other schools have expressed interest in joining them, but Main Wilson says none is under consideration. "From what I’ve seen, I think we’ve accredited all the SA schools that would qualify for Amba," he says.
MBAs offered by SA business schools are all locally accredited by the Council on Higher Education. Some schools, though, want the competitive edge they believe comes with international credentials.
Market research shows that, in SA as elsewhere, many students and employers rate these highly in their definition of a good programme.
Amba accreditation is expensive, time-consuming — and temporary. It’s valid for only three or five years, then schools have to expose themselves to renewed inspection. This is the point where, if quality has slipped even slightly, they can lose their place in the 300 to a newcomer.
Main Wilson warns that all schools, including those with international accreditation, could face unprecedented competition in coming years. The onset of wholly online MBAs is eating away at the uniqueness of individual schools’ programmes, he says.
Competition for students in each country will become a free-for-all among schools from all over the world. "The contest will become global," says Main Wilson. "You’ll no longer be competing only against schools in your city."
Online MBA education will allow the most prestigious schools to open their virtual doors to students who could never pass through the real ones. Harvard, for example, accepts only a tiny proportion of students applying for its traditional MBA, but there’s no such limit on the number of online students. "It wants to attract as many as possible," says Main Wilson.
I suggest 2022 will be a good year to graduate. By then, with any luck, we should have returned to some sort of normality
— Andrew Main Wilson
If the price is right, who wouldn’t want to boast a Harvard MBA?
But even a new Harvard student could struggle to advance their career at the moment.
Covid-19 has forced companies around the world to postpone planned graduate recruitment. This year’s graduate cohorts have limited career opportunities available to them. By the time next year’s cohorts hit the market, says Main Wilson, there will be a growing backlog of MBA graduates on the jobs market.
"I suggest 2022 will be a good year to graduate," he says. "By then, with any luck, we should have returned to some sort of normality."
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