UCT Graduate School of Business
Encyclopedia
The Graduate School of Business (GSB) is the business school of the University of Cape Town
(UCT), South Africa's oldest university. It was rated as the best business school in Africa by its global peers at the Eduniversal
World Convention in 2009 and 2010. Although small by international standards, it has a presence in the Financial Times Top 100 MBAs and customised programmes rankings and EQUIS
accreditation from the European Foundation for Management Development.
The School’s flagship programmes include the Masters in Business Administration (MBA), the Executive MBA, the Postgraduate Diploma in Business Administration (PDBA) and the Associate in Management (AIM) – each targeting a different level of management.
In addition, Customised Academic Learning, which develops nationally-accredited, customised programmes for corporate clients, is one of the fastest growing departments at the School. Clients include Woolworths and AngloGold Ashanti among others.
Executive Education at the GSB offers open-enrolment short courses for anyone from the emerging leader to the experienced executive, focusing on a wide range of development requirements. The department also develops short courses for corporate clients.
Today, the GSB has its home at the Breakwater Campus in the heart of Cape Town's most popular tourist attraction, the Victoria and Alfred Waterfront and very close to Cape Town's central business district. The campus, which was once a prison, derives its name from the fact that the site previously housed the convicts who built the Cape Town harbour breakwater in 1861. In the early 1990s, the derelict buildings were renovated to accommodate the business school but much of the original character still remains. The GSB has had its home here since 1991.
With its roots in Africa, the GSB’s vision is to be a leading emerging market business school that is both relevant and excellent. The school is committed to building a new model of a business school – one that is values-driven and focussed on emerging markets.
The GSB defines emerging as regions (or organisations) that experience conditions of high uncertainty, high complexity, and often, excessive inequality. This new paradigm is relevant not only for so-called emerging countries or regions but equally for companies operating in or encountering these conditions. Currently, such companies can be found anywhere in the world. The school is dedicated to equipping leaders and managers operating in such contexts with the relevant skills and know-how to be effective.
The GSB’s vision is built around three key areas
Academic Excellence
While most business schools develop academic strength via a few strong disciplines (finance, marketing, strategy etc.), the GSB is developing its academic excellence in the trans-disciplinary theme of Emerging Market Business. The systemic research themes are: Governance in Emerging Economies; Development; Innovation & Technology; Entrepreneurial Development & Sustainable Business; Diversity; Dynamics & Culture; Infrastructure, Reform and Regulation.
Societal Relevance
A business school cannot live outside its economic environment and has to take cognisance of its own societal responsibility. The GSB is committed to transformation and equality in all its aspects
Pedagogical Excellence
The GSB has developed teaching excellence through its application of SYSTAL (Systems Thinking Action Learning). Innovations in the areas of transformative learning and personal development are integrated into the curricula of many of the programmes. These learning processes are globally recognised as being at the vanguard of management education and business school practice.
EQUIS: The GSB has been awarded full accreditation by the prestigious European Foundation for Management Development
(EFMD). This means the GSB has a five-year European Quality Improvement System
(EQUIS) accreditation. EQUIS is the leading international system of quality assessment, improvement, and accreditation of higher education institutions in management and business administration. The GSB is one of only two African business schools to have received an EQUIS accreditation.
AABS: The GSB is one of six South African business schools to belong to the Association of African Business Schools (AABS) – an organisation that aims to promote excellence in business and management education on the continent by supporting business schools through capacity building, collaboration, and quality improvement.
Financial Times: The GSB MBA programme is the only African MBA programme to be placed on the Financial Times Global Top 100 MBA Rankings. In 2011, the School was placed at 60, moving up 29 places from 2010. In 2005 the GSB became the first African business school to receive an international MBA programme ranking when it entered the Top 100 at 82.
Financial Times Custom Ranking: Executive Education at the UCT GSB has been named the top business school in Africa for its customised leadership development work, achieving the 53rd spot in the 2011 Financial Times (FT) Executive Education 2011 World Custom Ranking.
UNICON
The UCT GSB is a member of the International University Consortium for Executive Education (UNICON), a prestigious network of the top business schools around the world. It is the only African business school to make it into this elite group, where it joins the likes of Harvard, Wharton, Kellogg and Stanford and other top-ranked schools. In 2008, it was also recognised by UNICON as one of six global innovators in teaching and learning.
The UCT Graduate School of Business (GSB) in association with the Allan Gray Orbis Foundation has taken a landmark step in establishing a Centre in Values-based Leadership at the GSB that is committed to exploring new ways of doing business based on purpose, sustainability and responsible practices. The centre is the first of its kind in South Africa and it seeks to raise issues of sustainability and values-based leadership to priority status in the country – and beyond. It has been established through sponsorship from Allan WB Gray, founder of Allan Gray Limited and the co-founder of Allan Gray Orbis Foundation.
Centre for Innovation and Entrepreneurship
Launched in 2001, the Centre for Innovation and Entrepreneurship (CIE) aims to develop entrepreneurial talent, capacity, skills, and support throughout the country. The CIE compiles the highly influential Global Entrepreneurship Monitor (GEM) report for South Africa each year and is also home to the Raymond Ackerman Academy for Entrepreneurial Development.
Centre for Coaching
The Centre for Coaching has initiated a dynamic partnership with New Ventures West – a US company with more than 20 years of coaching experience – and The Weathervane – South Africa’s first professional coaching organisation – to bring cutting-edge courses with international accreditation and practices to the country. Coaching to Excellence, Associate Coaching and Professional Coaching are the flagship courses offered by the Centre.
Managing Infrastructure Reform and Regulation
The Management Programme in Infrastructure Reform and Regulation (MIR) aims to build capacity to manage reform and regulation of infrastructure sectors throughout Africa and in other emerging economies. MIR works in support of sustainable development and is currently focusing on the electricity and water sectors. The centre conducts research, offers short courses, and provides professional support and policy advocacy.
The School’s core faculty is supplemented by upward of 70 visiting academics and executives from all over the world. Their presence adds to the wealth of expertise and depth of knowledge that is available to students.
A strong culture of research exists at the GSB. This is promoted by an emphasis on research performance in faculty recruitment and promotion and by active recruitment and supervision of PhD students.
The school’s research is used to continuously enrich and renew its curriculum and contributes directly to the creative intellectual capacity of South African business and society.
The GSB MBA is one of the oldest management programmes in South Africa and has been producing world-class graduates for almost four decades. It is consistently rated by the Financial Mail survey of MBAs, South Africa’s only official MBA ranking, as one of the top two programmes in the country.
The UCT MBA is designed to develop students both personally and professionally. The programme aims to give students the tools they need to create their own opportunities and succeed in a fast-paced world, whether in a small, new business or an established corporation.
At 11 months, the full-time UCT MBA programme is one of the shortest around and it is well-known for its intensity. The programme is also available in a modular format to accommodate students who wish to continue working while they pursue their studies.
Executive MBA
The Executive MBA at the UCT GSB was acknowledged by Henry Mintzberg in his influential book Managers Not MBAs as one of the most innovative programmes of its kind in the world. Unlike at other business schools, the Executive MBA is not simply a modular version of the MBA programme. Although the academic qualification is the same, the process of learning and content are different.
The Executive MBA is also the only programme in South Africa that is targeted at senior and executive managers and leaders. The course uses learning techniques that are designed to develop critical thinking, decision-making abilities and a capacity to function in complex organisational and social environments. Students acquire a deeper understanding of management from an international perspective. It is targeted at people looking to move their careers to the executive level.
Associate in Management(AIM)
AIM was launched in 1991 in order to fast track working black South Africans who, because of the history of apartheid, lacked the formal qualifications they needed to climb the corporate ladder. Although taught at a postgraduate level, the programme does not require applicants to have an undergraduate degree or even a matric certificate and recognises work experience and aptitude as prior learning.
Postgraduate Diploma in Business Administration (PDBA)
The PDBA seeks to give individuals moving into or through middle management the tools they need for personal and management effectiveness. The PDBA is a management development programme at pre-masters level and can act as a bridging course for students who may not meet the entrance requirements of the MBA programme.
Masters in Development Finance
The UCT GSB, in partnership with Africagrowth Institute (AGI), is offering an MPhil (Development Finance) which aims to ensure that Africa produces enough development finance experts to meet the development needs of the continent.
PHD Programme
The GSB runs a comprehensive PhD programme to encourage original research at the business school that fits the school’s research agenda.
Customised Academic Learning
The Customised Academic Learning (CAL) division at the UCT Graduate School of Business accelerates management and organisational development through innovative in-company, accredited programmes.
Customised programmes are designed to address the unique challenges facing organisations and industries for maximum effectiveness. CAL’s clients include Woolworths, BoE (Board of Executors), AngloGold Ashanti and Santam, amongst others.
Executive Education
Executive Education at the UCT GSB is rated and respected internationally for the calibre and style of its leadership development programmes.
The department offers a range of short courses that are open to public enrolment. These programmes are holistic, multi-disciplinary and research-based – they encourage participants to develop their ability to think critically and innovatively. Delegates also develop the ability to learn continuously from application and experience.
The selection of specialist short courses cover a spectrum of interests, ranging from general management issues to those that are industry-specific, such as electricity regulation. The school draws on a considerable range of expertise in delivering these courses, using local and international resources.
Neighbouring the CBD, the Protea Hotel Breakwater Lodge lies within reach of the main routes to beaches, mountain walks and city “hot spots” as well as being situated only 25km from the Cape Town International Airport.
Accommodation ranges from rooms with share shower facilities to rooms with private en-suites. Smoking and non-smoking rooms are available on request. All rooms are equipped with TV/Radio, direct-dial telephone and a welcome tray with biscuits and tea and coffee making facilities. Wireless hotspots are available throughout the building.
The Protea Hotel Breakwater Lodge offers conference and function facilities.
University of Cape Town
The University of Cape Town is a public research university located in Cape Town in the Western Cape province of South Africa. UCT was founded in 1829 as the South African College, and is the oldest university in South Africa and the second oldest extant university in Africa.-History:The roots of...
(UCT), South Africa's oldest university. It was rated as the best business school in Africa by its global peers at the Eduniversal
Eduniversal
Eduniversal is a French consulting company and a rating agency specialized in Higher Education. Founded in 1994, one of the main goals of Eduniversal is to provide a tool, for students all around the world, which provides information on the Best Business Schools, located in Eduniversal's 9...
World Convention in 2009 and 2010. Although small by international standards, it has a presence in the Financial Times Top 100 MBAs and customised programmes rankings and EQUIS
Equis
Equis may refer to:*European Quality Improvement System an international system of assessment and accreditation of higher education institutions in management and business administration run by the European Foundation for Management Development....
accreditation from the European Foundation for Management Development.
The School’s flagship programmes include the Masters in Business Administration (MBA), the Executive MBA, the Postgraduate Diploma in Business Administration (PDBA) and the Associate in Management (AIM) – each targeting a different level of management.
In addition, Customised Academic Learning, which develops nationally-accredited, customised programmes for corporate clients, is one of the fastest growing departments at the School. Clients include Woolworths and AngloGold Ashanti among others.
Executive Education at the GSB offers open-enrolment short courses for anyone from the emerging leader to the experienced executive, focusing on a wide range of development requirements. The department also develops short courses for corporate clients.
History and Location
The UCT Graduate School of Business is one of the oldest business schools in the country, having been established in 1964 on the University of Cape Town's main campus in Rondebosch, Cape Town. The GSB was the first South African business school to offer a full-time MBA programme, with the first class enrolling in 1966 under the leadership of Professor Bob Boland, the School's first director.Today, the GSB has its home at the Breakwater Campus in the heart of Cape Town's most popular tourist attraction, the Victoria and Alfred Waterfront and very close to Cape Town's central business district. The campus, which was once a prison, derives its name from the fact that the site previously housed the convicts who built the Cape Town harbour breakwater in 1861. In the early 1990s, the derelict buildings were renovated to accommodate the business school but much of the original character still remains. The GSB has had its home here since 1991.
Vision
The UCT GSB’s reputation as one of Africa’s leading business schools stems from four decades of developing world-class business leaders who consistently excel in all sectors of society.With its roots in Africa, the GSB’s vision is to be a leading emerging market business school that is both relevant and excellent. The school is committed to building a new model of a business school – one that is values-driven and focussed on emerging markets.
The GSB defines emerging as regions (or organisations) that experience conditions of high uncertainty, high complexity, and often, excessive inequality. This new paradigm is relevant not only for so-called emerging countries or regions but equally for companies operating in or encountering these conditions. Currently, such companies can be found anywhere in the world. The school is dedicated to equipping leaders and managers operating in such contexts with the relevant skills and know-how to be effective.
The GSB’s vision is built around three key areas
Academic Excellence
While most business schools develop academic strength via a few strong disciplines (finance, marketing, strategy etc.), the GSB is developing its academic excellence in the trans-disciplinary theme of Emerging Market Business. The systemic research themes are: Governance in Emerging Economies; Development; Innovation & Technology; Entrepreneurial Development & Sustainable Business; Diversity; Dynamics & Culture; Infrastructure, Reform and Regulation.
Societal Relevance
A business school cannot live outside its economic environment and has to take cognisance of its own societal responsibility. The GSB is committed to transformation and equality in all its aspects
Pedagogical Excellence
The GSB has developed teaching excellence through its application of SYSTAL (Systems Thinking Action Learning). Innovations in the areas of transformative learning and personal development are integrated into the curricula of many of the programmes. These learning processes are globally recognised as being at the vanguard of management education and business school practice.
Values
The GSB is a values-driven organisation and one of the few business schools in the world to have a clearly-defined set of values. These encapsulate the school’s aspirations and the commitments it makes to everyone with a stake in the business school.Accreditation/ Rankings
CHE: The GSB has received accreditation from the South African Council on Higher Education (CHE), ensuring a consistently high standard of education.EQUIS: The GSB has been awarded full accreditation by the prestigious European Foundation for Management Development
European Foundation for Management Development
The European Foundation for Management Development is an international membership organization, based in Brussels, Belgium. Europe's largest network association in the field of management development, it has over 700 member organizations from academia, business, public service and consultancy in...
(EFMD). This means the GSB has a five-year European Quality Improvement System
European Quality Improvement System
The European Quality Improvement System is a school accreditation system. It specializes in higher education institutions of management and business administration, run by the European Foundation for Management Development...
(EQUIS) accreditation. EQUIS is the leading international system of quality assessment, improvement, and accreditation of higher education institutions in management and business administration. The GSB is one of only two African business schools to have received an EQUIS accreditation.
AABS: The GSB is one of six South African business schools to belong to the Association of African Business Schools (AABS) – an organisation that aims to promote excellence in business and management education on the continent by supporting business schools through capacity building, collaboration, and quality improvement.
Financial Times: The GSB MBA programme is the only African MBA programme to be placed on the Financial Times Global Top 100 MBA Rankings. In 2011, the School was placed at 60, moving up 29 places from 2010. In 2005 the GSB became the first African business school to receive an international MBA programme ranking when it entered the Top 100 at 82.
Financial Times Custom Ranking: Executive Education at the UCT GSB has been named the top business school in Africa for its customised leadership development work, achieving the 53rd spot in the 2011 Financial Times (FT) Executive Education 2011 World Custom Ranking.
UNICON
The UCT GSB is a member of the International University Consortium for Executive Education (UNICON), a prestigious network of the top business schools around the world. It is the only African business school to make it into this elite group, where it joins the likes of Harvard, Wharton, Kellogg and Stanford and other top-ranked schools. In 2008, it was also recognised by UNICON as one of six global innovators in teaching and learning.
Specialist Centres
Allan Gray Centre for Values Based LeadershipThe UCT Graduate School of Business (GSB) in association with the Allan Gray Orbis Foundation has taken a landmark step in establishing a Centre in Values-based Leadership at the GSB that is committed to exploring new ways of doing business based on purpose, sustainability and responsible practices. The centre is the first of its kind in South Africa and it seeks to raise issues of sustainability and values-based leadership to priority status in the country – and beyond. It has been established through sponsorship from Allan WB Gray, founder of Allan Gray Limited and the co-founder of Allan Gray Orbis Foundation.
Centre for Innovation and Entrepreneurship
Launched in 2001, the Centre for Innovation and Entrepreneurship (CIE) aims to develop entrepreneurial talent, capacity, skills, and support throughout the country. The CIE compiles the highly influential Global Entrepreneurship Monitor (GEM) report for South Africa each year and is also home to the Raymond Ackerman Academy for Entrepreneurial Development.
Centre for Coaching
The Centre for Coaching has initiated a dynamic partnership with New Ventures West – a US company with more than 20 years of coaching experience – and The Weathervane – South Africa’s first professional coaching organisation – to bring cutting-edge courses with international accreditation and practices to the country. Coaching to Excellence, Associate Coaching and Professional Coaching are the flagship courses offered by the Centre.
Managing Infrastructure Reform and Regulation
The Management Programme in Infrastructure Reform and Regulation (MIR) aims to build capacity to manage reform and regulation of infrastructure sectors throughout Africa and in other emerging economies. MIR works in support of sustainable development and is currently focusing on the electricity and water sectors. The centre conducts research, offers short courses, and provides professional support and policy advocacy.
Faculty
The GSB has 29 resident faculty members – the largest complement of full-time faculty at any South African business school. Many are internationally acclaimed as researchers and teachers. Others are closely involved in national and regional issues and play leading roles in policy formulation and implementation. All are dedicated and gifted individuals who contribute directly to the GSB’s reputation for excellence.The School’s core faculty is supplemented by upward of 70 visiting academics and executives from all over the world. Their presence adds to the wealth of expertise and depth of knowledge that is available to students.
A strong culture of research exists at the GSB. This is promoted by an emphasis on research performance in faculty recruitment and promotion and by active recruitment and supervision of PhD students.
The school’s research is used to continuously enrich and renew its curriculum and contributes directly to the creative intellectual capacity of South African business and society.
Research
The School has identified five inter-disciplinary themes around which it seeks to focus its research. These are:- Governance in emerging economies and the impact on economic development
- Culture, diversity and dynamics
- Entrepreneurial development and sustainable business
- Development, innovation and technology
- Infrastructure and regulation
Programmes
MBAThe GSB MBA is one of the oldest management programmes in South Africa and has been producing world-class graduates for almost four decades. It is consistently rated by the Financial Mail survey of MBAs, South Africa’s only official MBA ranking, as one of the top two programmes in the country.
The UCT MBA is designed to develop students both personally and professionally. The programme aims to give students the tools they need to create their own opportunities and succeed in a fast-paced world, whether in a small, new business or an established corporation.
At 11 months, the full-time UCT MBA programme is one of the shortest around and it is well-known for its intensity. The programme is also available in a modular format to accommodate students who wish to continue working while they pursue their studies.
Executive MBA
The Executive MBA at the UCT GSB was acknowledged by Henry Mintzberg in his influential book Managers Not MBAs as one of the most innovative programmes of its kind in the world. Unlike at other business schools, the Executive MBA is not simply a modular version of the MBA programme. Although the academic qualification is the same, the process of learning and content are different.
The Executive MBA is also the only programme in South Africa that is targeted at senior and executive managers and leaders. The course uses learning techniques that are designed to develop critical thinking, decision-making abilities and a capacity to function in complex organisational and social environments. Students acquire a deeper understanding of management from an international perspective. It is targeted at people looking to move their careers to the executive level.
Associate in Management(AIM)
AIM was launched in 1991 in order to fast track working black South Africans who, because of the history of apartheid, lacked the formal qualifications they needed to climb the corporate ladder. Although taught at a postgraduate level, the programme does not require applicants to have an undergraduate degree or even a matric certificate and recognises work experience and aptitude as prior learning.
Postgraduate Diploma in Business Administration (PDBA)
The PDBA seeks to give individuals moving into or through middle management the tools they need for personal and management effectiveness. The PDBA is a management development programme at pre-masters level and can act as a bridging course for students who may not meet the entrance requirements of the MBA programme.
Masters in Development Finance
The UCT GSB, in partnership with Africagrowth Institute (AGI), is offering an MPhil (Development Finance) which aims to ensure that Africa produces enough development finance experts to meet the development needs of the continent.
PHD Programme
The GSB runs a comprehensive PhD programme to encourage original research at the business school that fits the school’s research agenda.
Customised Academic Learning
The Customised Academic Learning (CAL) division at the UCT Graduate School of Business accelerates management and organisational development through innovative in-company, accredited programmes.
Customised programmes are designed to address the unique challenges facing organisations and industries for maximum effectiveness. CAL’s clients include Woolworths, BoE (Board of Executors), AngloGold Ashanti and Santam, amongst others.
Executive Education
Executive Education at the UCT GSB is rated and respected internationally for the calibre and style of its leadership development programmes.
The department offers a range of short courses that are open to public enrolment. These programmes are holistic, multi-disciplinary and research-based – they encourage participants to develop their ability to think critically and innovatively. Delegates also develop the ability to learn continuously from application and experience.
The selection of specialist short courses cover a spectrum of interests, ranging from general management issues to those that are industry-specific, such as electricity regulation. The school draws on a considerable range of expertise in delivering these courses, using local and international resources.
Students
GSB students are drawn from across South Africa with a good demographic mix. Approximately 10-20% of the student body comprises international students who come from Europe, the US and the East as well as the rest of Africa to study at the school. GSB students are active in the local community and the GSB hosts Africa’s first chapter of Net Impact, the global society that seeks to make business school students more ethically aware.Campus
Once a 19th Century Prison, the Breakwater Lodge, operated by Protea Hotels, is positioned in the heart of Cape Town’s Waterfront Development and has access to restaurants, pubs, shops and entertainment facilities.Neighbouring the CBD, the Protea Hotel Breakwater Lodge lies within reach of the main routes to beaches, mountain walks and city “hot spots” as well as being situated only 25km from the Cape Town International Airport.
Accommodation ranges from rooms with share shower facilities to rooms with private en-suites. Smoking and non-smoking rooms are available on request. All rooms are equipped with TV/Radio, direct-dial telephone and a welcome tray with biscuits and tea and coffee making facilities. Wireless hotspots are available throughout the building.
The Protea Hotel Breakwater Lodge offers conference and function facilities.
See also
- Centre for Curating the ArchiveCentre for Curating the ArchiveThe Centre for Curating the Archive, at the University of Cape Town, began life as LLAREC in the late 1990s as a space in which material, both original and reproduced, created and found, was collected from a variety of archives, museums, collections, storerooms, offices and junk heaps and used...
- List of universities in South Africa
- Education in South AfricaEducation in South AfricaSouth Africa has a 3 tier system of education starting with primary school, followed by high school and tertiary education in the form of universities and universities of technology....
- Chancellor of the University of Cape TownChancellor of the University of Cape TownThe Chancellor of the University of Cape Town is the ceremonial head of the university, representing it in the public sphere and conferring degrees in its name. The Chancellorship is a titular position; the chief executive of the university is the Vice-Chancellor...