Sa Business Schools Among World's Best
Four South African business schools have been voted among the world's best in the 2008 Financial Times business school rankings.
The Gordon Institute of Business Science (GIBS) was ranked in 38th place among 50 business schools in the Top Executive Education Open Programmes category. The University of Stellenbosch's Executive Education programme (USB-Ed) earned its place in the category at 50th place.
Wits Business School joined GIBS and USB-Ed in the rankings for the top 65 schools offering executive training programmes customised for particular companies. GIBS was ranked at 51, USB-Ed at 60 and Wits at 62.
The University of Cape Town's Graduate School of Business maintained its place in the Top 100 Global MBA rankings, though dropped significantly from its 52nd place ranking of 2007 to 71st place in 2008.
Speaking to Business Day, GIBS Director Prof Nick Binedell said that the rankings showed that some of South Africa's business schools are indeed world class.
"There are only three schools [on the executive education open programmes list] from emerging markets; Fundação Dom Cabral, GIBS and Stellenbosch. That's quite a thing for SA. Business schools are ubiquitous now; this is quite an achievement," he said.
The Lagos Business School (LBS) in Nigeria is the only other African institution to appear in this year's rankings. LBS ranked 48th in the open enrolment programme category.
Frik Landman CEO of USB-Ed estimates that there may well be over 3 500 business schools in the world. The rankings attained by the South African schools were a magnificent achievement for Africa, he told Business Day.
Overall the rankings were led by business schools in Europe and North America. Of the 100 schools ranked in the Global MBA Rankings, 57 were based in the United States. The category was topped by the University of Pennsylvania, The London Business School and Columbia University.
For more information visit Financial Times.com
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