Black business-education academics are in short supply. Once upon a time, that would have been no surprise, given South Africa’s history and the lack of black access to higher education.
But 30 years after democracy, the problem remains. The difference is that the reasons appear to have shifted to a new and complex dynamic. They include an education system that lacks the necessary underpinning to prepare academics at an early stage of career development.
Chief among the causes is money. Business schools typically cannot compete with the deep pockets of the private sector. As Rhodes Business School director Owen Skae puts it: “One of the main reasons cited is remuneration when competing against the private sector. Black academics at the professorial level are highly sought after.”
He adds that growth in business education is making the situation worse.
Pfano Mashau, director of the Durban University of Technology Business School, tells the FM that “apartheid scars are still visible” in education. Not enough black students have had the opportunity to pursue advanced degrees, particularly in business and management disciplines. “Most black potential scholars pursue another profession to access a form of income much faster than they would if they had pursued careers in academia,” he says.
Wits Business School director Logan Rangasamy says: “It has been argued that, in general, black graduates find academia unattractive, especially given the higher salaries that they can command in the corporate sector.”
Hamieda Parker, of the University of Cape Town’s Graduate School of Business (GSB), says a PhD or doctorate, the gateway to academia, requires a substantial time investment, during which people have reduced earning potential.
“In a country such as ours, where many educated black professionals are looking to make up the social mobility lost over generations, this trade-off is often larger,” she says. Parker is the first black woman full professor at the GSB and serves as chair of its transformation forum.
“When you are the first to graduate in your family, the pressure to maximise your earning potential may be the larger imperative for talented South Africans who may well make great academics,” she says.
While bringing more racial diversity to the ranks of business academia is important, it must be acknowledged that, generally, there is a low stock of academics in South Africa.
For instance, the minimum qualification for a full academic is an advanced university degree, preferably a PhD. However, data from Unesco’s Institute of Statistics shows that, in 2021, the net enrolment rate at university level was 25% for South Africa compared with 56.8% for Brazil, 67% for China and 78% for Europe and Central Asia.
This trend, though general and not specifically targeted at PhD enrolment, shows South Africa lacks the overall student numbers to meet its academia needs, says Stellenbosch Business School acting director Charles Adjasi.
“When juxtaposed with our historical context, it implies we have to do more to widen access to tertiary education,” he says. “The situation becomes acute when we focus on PhD graduates. Simply put, we have to train and mentor more black academics.”
When juxtaposed with our historical context, it implies we have to do more to widen access to tertiary education
— Charles Adjasi
Not all business schools report a shortage of black academics. Morris Mthombeni, dean of the University of Pretoria’s Gordon Institute of Business Science (Gibs), says that when he joined in 2014, permanent faculty at the school included a single black South African. Ten years later, “more than 45% of our local academics are black, with over 80% holding a PhD”.
He says: “We achieved this through a deliberate recruitment and development drive, balancing research, teaching and practical engagement. Stable leadership within Gibs and support from the university executive have also been crucial to our talent management strategy.”
Crucially, this transformation has been achieved without alienating white academics. The aim, he adds, is for local black academics to account for 40% of staff, with foreign black academics comprising another 10%.
Potential alienation works both ways. Mashau says: “The academic environment can sometimes be unwelcoming or unsupportive for black scholars, leading to retention issues.”
Paul Poisat, acting director at Nelson Mandela University Business School, says growth and development plans for African academics should be integrated into business schools’ talent management strategy. Indeed, several schools say they have programmes to steer black talent into academic careers — even if it means some of the beneficiaries end up at other business schools.
Adjasi says Stellenbosch runs a structured PhD programme to attract qualified candidates, especially black South Africans, for rigorous academic training and mentorship. “We have produced a fair number of black South Africans who have been absorbed in business schools around the country,” he says.
Business schools typically cannot compete with the deep pockets of the private sector
Other schools, like Rhodes, participate in the New Generation of Academics Programme, appointing fellows — preferably black South Africans — who complete their PhDs while being mentored and absorbed as academics.
Peet Venter, academic director of Unisa’s Graduate School of Business Leadership, says the school has appointed several local black academics in the past year and more are in the pipeline. But he admits that, overall, the available talent pool is shallow.
The short-term solution, without addressing systemic issues, “seems to be head-hunting suitable individuals where the normal recruitment processes fail”, he says.
Compounding the issue, business schools ideally like their academics to have both academic and industry experience, Poisat says. “Finding prospective lecturers with both is difficult. Prospective candidates who have the [overall] competency set are sought after and demand a competitive remuneration package.”
Business schools are wary of getting into bidding wars for this talent. Once black academics are appointed, they are often expected to put themselves forward for leadership roles or make themselves available to sit on various committees to balance equity requirements.
They might reasonably ask why, when, in many cases, they want to focus on their research and teaching and build an academic profile.
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