South African Business 2017 edition

OVERVIEW
rated as Africa’s top university and Pretoria and the University of the
Witwatersrand (Wits) are also highly regarded as research institutions.
Wits has been ranked in the top 1% of world institutions in seven fields
of research. The university offers studies in more than 40 schools in
five faculties.
The University of South Africa (UNISA) offers correspondence
courses. Its headquarters are in Pretoria but it has sites throughout
South Africa. UNISA has a staff of more than 4 000 and
300 000 registered students in South Africa and Africa.
Universities of technology have a specific focus on educating
young people in fields that will enhance the country’s
economic performance. Technology is at the core of the
learning experience.
Business schools
Gauteng has three of South Africa’s top five business schools: the Wits
Business School, the University of South Africa’s Graduate School of
Business Leadership and the Gordon Institute of Business Science.
The Graduate School of Business (UCT) is accredited by the European
Foundation for Management Development while Stellenbosch’s
Business School has a specialist unit called the Centre for Project
Management Intelligence.
The University of KwaZulu-Natal’s Graduate School of Business
is a founder member of the Association of BRICS Business Schools.
Rhodes University’s Business School has a strong focus on environmental
management.
Schools
South Africa has 26 000 public schools. Many schools need upgrading.
The Department of Basic Education reports that 684 schools have
been built between 2009 and 2016 and an additional 343 schools are
planned for the period 2017 to 2019.
The Mathematics, Science and Technology (MST) Grant, is intended
to promote the teaching and learning of these subjects. This Grant, an
amalgamation of the Technical Schools Recapitalisation Grant and the
Dinaledi Schools Grant, has been allocated a total of R1.1-billion over
ONLINE RESOURCES
National Department of Basic Education: www.education.gov.za
National Department of Higher Education: www.dhet.gov.za
Southern African Regional Universities Association: www:sarua.org
the 2015/16 to 2017/18 MTEF period.
The Department’s 2015/2016
budget allocates infrastructure
delivery funding through the
Education Infrastructure Grant
(EIG) at R29.622-billion for the
MTEF period; and the Accelerated
Schools Infrastructure Delivery
Initiative (ASIDI) funded to the
tune of R7.042-billion. Through
the ASIDI programme, 163
new schools have been built
since 2011.
Advtech is a JSE-listed
company that runs several
schools including Abbotts
College and Varsity College
with an enrolment of some
35 000 students. Curro Holdings
is also listed on the JSE. A funding
agreement with Old Mutual
Investment Group SA (OMIGSA)
and the Public Investment
Corporation (PIC) will see Curro
roll out 11 low-fee independent
schools in the period to 2019.
These will be called Meridian
Independent Schools.
The LEAP Science and Maths
School model is far from the JSE
company model: these schools
have low fees and have to raise
funds to survive but they offer
excellent teaching, particularly
in mathematics, science and
English. There are six schools in
South Africa and they are enabling
children from black townships
to do well enough at school
to go on to study engineering
at university.
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