Business

This is the best business school in South Africa for executives

Staff Writer

 ·17 Oct 2016

The Financial Times has published its ranking of the best 100 executive MBAs in the world, which includes a single programme offered in South Africa.

The ranking rates the best 100 programmes worldwide for working senior executives. It is based on a survey of business schools and another of their alumni who graduated in 2013. The data measure how successful alumni have been in their career in terms of salary, seniority and achievements since graduating.

The joint Sino-American programme delivered by the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology and Kellogg School of Management has returned to the top of the table.

Kellogg/HKUST dominated this ranking from 2009 to 2014 but lost out to Trium in 2014 and to Tsinghua University/Insead in 2015.

While Insead’s joint programme dropped back into second place, its single-school programme moved up three places to fourth, a place it last occupied in 2011.

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The alumni from the top MBA programme enjoyed by far the greatest financial rewards, with an average salary of $469,000 three years after graduation.

Female and male participants typically have similar profiles at the start of their EMBA, the FT said. At 36, women are about two years younger than men but senior positions are fairly well distributed between genders, with only slightly more women in relatively junior positions — 26% of them are professionals compared with 24% of men.

However, before starting their EMBAs, there is already a wide gap in salaries, with women earning on average 15% less than men, at $111,000 and $128,000 respectively.

Men and women rated the strengths of their programme equally. However, significantly fewer women (59%) occupy positions as department heads or above than men (68%) three years after graduation.

Read: These are the best business schools in South Africa – and how much they cost

The South African programme, the University of Pretoria, Gibs EMBA climbed the rankings in 2016, to 74th.

In January, the FT ranked the top Masters in Business Administration (MBA) programmes, with only the University of Cape Town GSB featuring on the list – at 76th.

These are the 15 best executive business courses in the world, according to the Financial Times.

(Currency exchanged at USD 1 = ZAR 14.16)

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