With one of the worldâs fastest rates of economic growth, Africa will likely produce a big chunk of the next generationâs executives. Peter Tufano, dean of University of Oxfordâs Saïd Business School, wants them to carry the Saïd pedigree.
To make that happen, he aims to boost the proportion of African students in his schoolâs MBA program to 10 percent within the next few years.
âWhen youâre betting on a young person whoâs getting an MBA, itâs a relevant question to ask where will the world be in 25 years,â Tufano says. âTen percent is rough justice.â
Western countries are clamoring for opportunities to invest in the continent, and several business schools have set up campuses there. Saïdâs approach is different: The school is injecting a focus on African business into the regular MBA program.
Tufano, who became Saïdâs dean in 2011, is inching toward his 10 percent goal. Fourteen of the 243 students entering Saïdâs MBA program this year are from the continent (or just under 6 percent), up from six students in 2013. He hired Catherine Duggan, a Harvard Business School professor who is an expert on African economies, to help revise the schoolâs curriculum.
âAfrican markets are being shaped as we speak,â says Duggan, who will develop case studies involving African companies and international companies working in Africa, as well as teach an elective course on doing business in Africa.
Saïd recruited in Nigeria, Ghana, and South Africa last year, and it offered scholarship money to seven of the 14 African students starting the program this fall. Its new curriculum will focus on what those students can offer businesses. âThe real, driving question has to be not âWhat can we teach Africa?ââ Duggan says. âItâs âWhat can we learn from Africa?â Or âWhat can we learn from business thatâs being done in Africa?ââ
Samkelisiwe Peter, a 25-year-old South African banker who won one of the Saïd scholarships and will start the MBA program in September, says a business degree will give him credibility that will help him start a private-equity firm based on the continent.
Some $200 billion flowed to Africa in 2014, according to (PDF) the African Development Bank. Peter says that getting a piece of that pie hinges on your credentials. âWithout an MBA or an equivalent qualification, you will struggle to actually tap into that capital,â he says.
Drawing more African students into Saïdâs student body wonât necessarily be a seamless process. For one thing, African students donât necessarily understand the vagaries of graduate standardized tests, says Tufano: âI donât think thereâs a lot of GMAT test prepâ in African countries. Indeed, there are only 20 places to take the test on the continent, and just 2.5 percent of GMAT-takers came from African countries in the last five years, according to the Graduate Management Admission Council, which administers the GMAT.
âWe are actively working with schools and others in various countries in Africa in an attempt to strengthen that prep pipeline,â says GMAC spokesman Rich DâAmato.
To Duggan, the relative novelty of the degree on the continent is an asset. âYouâre talking to the people sitting in your MBA classroom who are going to be some of the leaders who push this thing forward, the continent forward.â