Community and collaboration: How Regent Business School ensures uninterrupted learning during the lockdown

“The lockdown has been challenging for South Africans on many levels, and has heightened socio-economic concerns,” explains Dr Ahmed Shaikh, managing director of Regent Business School. “To this end, we leveraged our relationship with MTN and Cell C to ensure that the technology needs of our distance learning offering do not place added stress on already strained student budgets. Our team is continuing with negotiations with other service providers so we can expand our data-free access to other networks.”

The MTN and Cell C deals allow students to access www.regent.ac.za, www.regentonline.ac.za and www.myregent.ac.za from anywhere in South Africa, using a valid MTN or Cell C sim card, without worrying about running up exorbitant data costs. This translates into full access to online teaching tools and resources that include webinars, videos, tutorials and voiced PowerPoint presentations for as long as they like and as many times as they want without having to worry about losing or topping up on data.

The data-free agreements are part of a series of developments and innovations that the Regent Business School team has rolled out since the start of the lockdown on 27 March to embrace the Covid-19 altered education landscape. This included ramping up its distance learning platform which has been on offer for more than two decades.

“For the Regent Business School community, supported distance learning is more than providing guidance and assistance to smooth over education challenges,” says Dr Shaikh. “It’s about shoring up the strength and connectivity of our student community through enhanced experiences. Whether it’s our WhatsApp Chat Bot, free creative and innovation webinars at our innovation hubs or iLeadLabs, data-free access, on-the-house counselling sessions for students who need emotional support or our recent digitally-interactive virtual graduation, we have a strong people-first culture. And this humanistic approach will continue to fuel everything we do, even in the face of rapid digital immersion.”

About Regent Business School

Since 1988, Regent Business School (RBS) has been at the forefront of premium management education across the continent. Headquartered in Durban, KwaZulu-Natal, RBS’s acclaimed finance and management programmes have helped individuals and organisations build and sustain competitive advantages in a rapidly changing, complex business environment. With tuition centres in all major hubs, Johannesburg, Cape Town and Pretoria, as well as in SADC countries, Swaziland and Namibia, the institution’s alumni base of 5,000 is rapidly expanding. RBS’s leading centres for excellence – The Institute of Entrepreneurship, The Centre for Islamic Finance and Banking, The Centre for BRICS Business Schools Association, The Centre for Public Sector Management, and The School Accounting – are popular with high performers who are serious about making positive, impactful change within the global finance and management sectors. In addition, the employment arm of RBS – iLeadLab focuses on empowering students with 4IR skills.

www.regent.ac.za