Ten tertiary education institutions offering Masters in Business Administration (MBA) qualifications have had their MBA courses scrapped, the Council for Higher Education said on Thursday.
Six existing business schools received full accreditation. They are the Gordon Institute of Business Science at the University of Pretoria, the Wits Business School, the Graduate School of Business at the University of Stellenbosch, the Graduate School of Business at the University of Cape Town, the Graduate School of Leadership at the University of South Africa and the Graduate School of Management at the University of Pretoria.
The institutions had one year to make required changes or face being deregistered.
The reaccreditation process formed part of a broad evaluation of all MBA qualifications on offer in South Africa.
Institutions that failed to make the grade will have to phase out their programmes.
The courses offered by the University of Natal, Technikon Witwatersrand and the Cape Technikon were among those of 10 tertiary institutions to be scrapped for failing to meeting certain minimum standards. Others included the Durban Institute of Technology, the Regent Business School, the De Montfort SA and the Business School Netherlands.
In some cases students who have already enrolled will be allowed to complete the degree and in others they will be transferred to other institutions.
Students of those schools that lost their accreditations will have a valid MBA qualification, the Council for Higher Education said. But these are likely to be frowned upon by prospective employers.
Twelve MBA programmes were conditionally accredited, including the University of the Free State’s School of Management, the Pretoria Technikon Business School, the Milpark Business School and Damelin International College. — Sapa