Press release: Henley Business School Africa has become the first business school to gain accreditation by the Association of African Business Schools (AABS)
29 November 2021, Johannesburg, South Africa. HENLEY Business School Africa has become the first business school to be accredited by the Association of African Business Schools (AABS) https://www.aabschools.com . The announcement, made on Thursday 25 September 2021 at the Association of African Business Schools deans’ meeting, hosted virtually by Lagos Business School in Nigeria, also made Henley Africa the first business school on the continent to be quadruple-accredited.
There are only 109 business schools across the world, 1% of the total, that hold the coveted triple crown of AMBA, EFMD and AACSB accreditation https://www.aabschools.com/news/are-sa-schools-truly-african-new-accreditation-body-doesnt-want-western-clones/. Apart from Henley, there are only four other triple-accredited schools in Africa: UCT Graduate School of Business, Stellenbosch University Business School, GIBS and the American University in Cairo Business School. Now Henley Africa is the first to attain AABS accreditation in addition.
It’s highly significant, says Henley Africa dean and director Jon Foster-Pedley.
“This certification recognises Henley Africa as a fully-fledged business school in its own right, as an independent African business school rather than simply as a branch of Henley UK.”
“African education is truly coming of age. AABS has created a challenging accreditation process based on the strictest parameters from AACSB and EFMD models https://www.aabschools.com/network/accreditation/faq/. African education as a whole is finding its voice, standards and stature in its own right, and this means that we can confidently collaborate to build better business education across Africa.”
The accreditation also recognises Henley Africa’s work to create high-level African education and to decolonise education, making it accessible, relevant and vital. This is not only within the context of ‘building back better’ after the ravages of COVID-19, but also in being activist in spirit in shaping education to empower business growth across Africa to build prosperity and opportunity.
Henley Africa has been at the forefront of innovation during the pandemic. For example, it successfully pivoted to virtual learning before President Cyril Ramaphosa’s imposition of the first https://www.henleysa.ac.za/henley-business-school-africa-believes-in-real-life-real-time-and-relevant-action-learning/, level 5 lockdown in March 2020, and created a range of original short courses for business. Among these were agile business growth for entrepreneurs, virtual practice for healthcare practitioners, business acumen for aspirant farm managers and resilience for executives. To push education technology forwards, Henley is doing pioneering work in the use of virtual reality immersive learning in its unique Postgraduate Diploma in Management Practice for Africa.
“I am proud of what Henley Africa has achieved. This assessment, conducted by our African peers and leading international educators, was of Henley Africa rather than Henley global. It really validates what our faculty and staff have achieved. Starting as a branch of an international university, we have immersed ourselves in Africa to create a leading stand-alone African business school with 4 500 students annually, graduating nearly 2 000 students per year who are having real impact in Africa.
We achieved this organically and independently, only with our own resources, in 10 years from having five staff in one office, graduating 30. They can rightfully be enormously proud of this. They are living our mission, which is “we build the people who build the businesses that build Africa”.
ENDS