GIBS remains the number one African and South African Business School

The Financial Times survey presents a global benchmark for providers of executive education and GIBS has now been ranked among the top business schools worldwide for 11 consecutive years.

The survey is compiled using data from two sets of online surveys - one for business schools themselves and another for clients. Business schools are asked for details of a number of top clients, who are then invited to complete an online survey about the school that nominated them. For GIBS, clients comprising not only leading South African corporates but top multinationals operating in the rest of Africa and abroad participated in the survey.

International standing

This year, GIBS executive education has risen to number 42 worldwide, one up from its 43rd combined executive education ranking last year and remains the only African and Middle Eastern School in the global top 50. "This is once again a tremendous achievement for GIBS and highlights the international standing of our programmes as we continue to be placed among the best business schools in the world," says Professor Nick Binedell, Dean at GIBS.

"At GIBS we continue to strive to significantly improve the performance of individuals and organisations through business education and this ranking affirms that as a business school we are making an impact. We look forward to continuing to enhance the quality of our programmes in a tough and ever changing economic landscape," he added.

The Financial Times executive education rankings are a combination of the rankings of two types pf programmes: "customised programmes", which are developed in alignment with company specific needs and "open programmes", which are intensive executive development programmes open to the public.

In terms of open programmes GIBS achieved a ranking of 42nd (up from 43rd in 2013), next in Africa is Lagos Business school in 55th place followed by the University of Cape Town's USB sitting at 61st place and Wits Business School in 62nd place. "We are extremely proud of our 42nd-placed ranking that puts us in a similar ranking to some of the top business schools in Australia, the Netherlands and France," says Shaun Rozyn, executive director of Corporate Education at GIBS.

In custom programmes, GIBS remains the highest ranked African business school, followed by the University of Cape Town's GSB and the University of Stellenbosch's USB sitting in 64th and 68th position respectively. Wits Business School appears in 78th place.

"The feedback we receive from such surveys is invaluable as it allows us to constantly ensure that our programmes meet the highest standards possible on a global scale. We are proud to have a team of high-performing individuals who are committed to building partnerships with our clients as part of the impact we continually aim for. Particularly pleasing is that we are delivering programmes for leading global multinationals such as BP, Nokia, Ericsson, Hewlett Packard and IBM across the continent and more recently leading African firms such as Kenya Airways in Kenya and NMB bank in Tanzania," added Rozyn.