Five years after new regulations forced several local providers to close their doors, SA education authorities are planning another shake-up of the Masters in Business Administration (MBA) degree.
There may not be casualties this time round but schools will certainly have to refine content and the way they present their programmes. The potential changes are part of a broader review of academic qualifications being undertaken by the department of higher education & training, SA Qualifications Authority, and Council on Higher Education (CHE).
Business schools worldwide are re-evaluating MBA programmes to meet changing market demands. Jeanette Purcell, UK-based MD of the international Association of MBAs (Amba), says schools must accelerate the inclusion of issues like ethics, governance and sustainability. "Are MBA programmes offering people the skills to manage change? It's a question schools should be asking themselves every day." Amba plans to introduce new accreditation criteria next year.
There are shake-ups on various levels. In SA, schools are being forced to confront another challenge that has been looming for some years: at a time expatriate SA academics are making their name at top overseas schools, SA's domestic leadership cupboard looks increasingly bare.
Among SA's academic exports are Mike Page, dean of business at Bentley College in the US; Frank Horwitz, director of Cranfield School of Management in the UK; and Garth Saloner, who became dean of Stanford University's Graduate School of Business this month.
Horwitz has been replaced at the helm of the University of Cape Town's Graduate School of Business (GSB) by Walter Baets, a Belgian. Stellenbosch University's school favours an overseas candidate to succeed long-serving Eon Smit from January. And now Wits Business School is seeking a replacement for Mthuli Ncube, who has moved "upstairs" to become dean of Wits University's faculty of commerce, law & management.
Ncube, a Zimbabwean, says there are "very good" internal candidates but a senior university insider says: "I think a foreign director is preferable."
This growing preference for foreign leadership underlines the importance top schools attach to being "international". As Smit notes: "If you want to position yourself internationally, you need someone with international experience - someone who understands global competition."
Rhodes University's business school will also have a new head from January after founding director Gavin Staude goes on sabbatical before retirement.
This new leadership - and SA business schools as a whole - will have to prepare for an MBA future that, in the medium term, is unclear. For years, schools have argued that the
qualification is the equivalent of any other Master's degree and should be accorded the same academic respect.
Among other things, that would entitle schools to a full Master's subsidy for each MBA student. Without it, some say they run their MBA programmes at a loss, and rely on cross-subsidisation from other activities such as executive education.
It's true that at schools like Wits, Cape Town, the Gordon Institute of Business Science (Gibs) and Unisa, MBAs account for less than 25% of total revenue (at the other end of the scale, it's 90% at Rhodes), but with programme fees running as high as R167 500, one could argue schools should re-examine their MBA costings. Business consultancy KPMG is understood to be working with the SA Business Schools Association (Sabsa) to devise an MBA subsidy model.
But should an MBA be treated the same as other Master's degrees? Most Master's degrees are academic, requiring a high research component. The MBA, in its most fundamental form, is a business training qualification. Some SA programmes do make intense demands on students but even the MBA's strongest supporters admit it is as much an applied degree as an academic one.
That has its advantages, says Potchefstroom Business School director Tommy du Plessis. "An MBA is a complete course. I can always tell the difference between an MBA and someone with an ordinary Master's. MBAs can express themselves. They have self-confidence."
Tom Ryan, head of Cape Town GSB's executive MBA programme, says the issue of whether an MBA should be an academic or applied degree has raged for years. "The only certain thing is that we need to find a balance between the academic and practical. An MBA must be able to close the gap between theory and practice."
This balance is at the heart of the debate over the future shape of the MBA. A new higher education quality framework (HEQF) came into effect on January 1. The aim is to create "consistency and coherence" across all qualifications. Though the framework sets out broad guidelines, authorities say it will take time to bring each qualification in line.
In the case of MBAs, it will probably be 2012 before new criteria take hold. CHE MD Cheryl de la Rey, who will leave later this year to become vice-chancellor of Pretoria University, says students already in the MBA pipeline must be allowed to finish before changes come in. Those planning to study from 2012 must know exactly what they are letting themselves in for.
Key to determining its shape will be deciding what the MBA is for. Says De la Rey : "Part of our debate is whether the standards we set should be framed by the primary purpose of the qualification. One of the main objectives of a Master's degree is research. It accounts for about one-third of the total assessment. But we have to look at the needs of potential MBA employers. You would expect students to do business research, but to what extent? The need for research skills might not support the primary purpose of the qualification."
Lis Lange, executive director of the CHE's higher education quality committee, sums it up: "You determine the purpose then understand how you get there." She adds that any decision must take into account what is happening elsewhere in the world. "We can't ignore international MBA norms."
De La Rey promises widespread consultation with schools and employer bodies before decisions are made. "We are in a long transitional period."
Lange says deeming the MBA a full academic Master's degree would have implications beyond possible government subsidies. It could also require an overhaul of the MBA accreditation process.
Current MBA providers are governed by a set of minimum standards imposed in 2004 after a drawn-out re-accreditation exercise that led to several schools losing the right to offer MBAs. At the time, it was intended to repeat the exercise every five years to ensure continued compliance and progressively raise qualifying standards.
However, a lack of capacity has prevented the CHE from updating. Instead, a system of peer review requires schools to regulate each other. Smit is concerned at the lack of incentive for improvement. "I thought the original re-accreditation was significant because it set standards and got rid of institutions with a short-term outlook. But I haven't seen the quality bar being raised since then. Some schools have improved significantly, but not all. There's nothing to push them."
Two schools - Regenesys and Regent - presently enjoy provisional accreditation for their MBA programmes, meaning they have to improve before receiving full clearance. Lange says Regenesys is expected to apply by year-end but Regent will probably have to wait until 2010.
Any attempt to make an MBA wholly academic is likely to be resisted. Though De la Rey and Lange insist no decisions have been made, some schools say they have heard original research will account for at least 30% of course credits. One school says it will be 50%. Ncube and Smit are comfortable with the lower figure but the head of another university-based school says: "I'm not sure we can get there under present circumstances. We would need to re-engineer our whole MBA programme."
Stephen Kruger, dean of the University of Johannesburg's faculty of management, is watching developments with interest. The faculty has resisted suggestions that it exchange its Master's in commerce for an MBA. Its MCom meets the research criteria for a full Master's subsidy. "Our qualification provides depth rather than the MBA's breadth," says Kruger. "Our students are far more academically orientated."
Suggestions that MBA students should not be accepted without an Honours degree - theoretically the prerequisite for other Master's degrees - are not popular. Under present rules, equivalent prior learning is acceptable. This can be interpreted in different ways. Some schools set entrance exams, others accept management experience. Even this is blurred. It's possible to win a place on an MBA programme with no academic qualifications whatsoever (including matric) and minimal business background.
Ncube, who is also Sabsa chairman, says: "A Master's should be a continuation of previous education. Too often an MBA is a one-off qualification." Given SA's previously unequal education system, however, some leeway is necessary. Free State University's business school director and Sabsa vice-chairman Helena van Zyl believes other post graduate studies should count.
Du Plessis says some schools used to run extended MBAs which included a bridging programme to bring them up to Honours level before starting the MBA proper. Education authorities permitting, that could be an option again in future.
Gibs marketing director Sue Swart says: "It would be a shame if people were to be prevented from taking part for lack of formal academic qualifications. We rejected one woman for our programme but she kept applying and got in at the third attempt. She went on to be top of her class. What is important isn't high entry requirements but high exit requirements."
WHAT IT MEANS
 Higher education qualifications review
MBAs may require more research content
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Whatever uncertainty may exist about future policy, business schools continue to expand capacity and options. Last week Gibs began running its first entrepreneurship MBA for individuals who have left the corporate world and plan to start their own businesses. School executive director Jonathan Cook explains: "Students must come to us with a business plan for their intended venture. In addition to helping them refine - and possibly change - that plan, we will introduce them to banks and venture capitalists." In response to the suggestion that this sounds as much like a business advisory service as an MBA, he says: "Joburg is a frontier town built on entrepreneurial flair. We must nurture that."
Unisa's Graduate School of Business Leadership is also reconsidering its MBA-equivalent MBL. Director David Abdulai wants to move away from the British Open University model towards something more South African.
Rhodes's Staude hopes a university review of the business school will allow it to expand its MBA student base. A number of schools plan to incorporate foreign business travel into their programmes.
Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University's business school wants to send a group to Germany in 2010. Such trips don't always go according to plan.
Free State's Van Zyl says: "We had planned to send a group to India but then the terrorist bombs exploded." Instead there will be a study tour to Italy in November.
