The importance of good leadership is more vital now than ever and something that cannot be overstated. And good leadership for the modern world cannot be achieved without an education rooted in a strong moral fibre and global outlook.
Luckily for the citizens of the world there is an institution in South Africa which has gained a global reputation of nurturing world-class business leaders, equipping them with the right competencies, and developing business acumen geared toward creating a sustainable future. This is the Milpark Business School!
Milpark Business School was established in 1997 and was one of the first private providers of Management Higher Education in South Africa.
In 2008, Milpark integrated multiple higher education qualifications into its suite of programmes and became, as a result, a leading provider of higher educational qualifications to a range of management sectors.
Today, Milpark Business School is a premium provider of highly sought-after accredited business qualifications in South Africa with a footprint in the rest of Africa. High-quality and flexible learning options make Milpark Education the preferred institution for business students.
MBS’s Mission: Developing ethical leaders for the common good.
MBS Value Proposition: MBS is a key contributor to ethical and sustainable business practices.
Values:
• Integrity – to aspire to the highest standards of responsibility and accountability.
• Respect – each other’s diversity of look, opinion, persuasion, and ambition.
• Excellence – to achieve so that others may follow.
• Innovation – to never be satisfied that good enough is good enough.
In addition, Milpark Education’s commitment to quality education for all its students and stakeholders is expressed in the following ways:
Non-discrimination: Milpark’s student body reflects the demographics of South Africa. Its commitment to non-discrimination means that all students are supported and assisted in their studies by a committed and capable team of staff.
Diversity: Milpark’s diverse staff bring a wide range of backgrounds and experiences to their teaching and learning interactions.
Support for all students: Milpark offers personal support to all its students and additional specialised support, where needed, to all its disabled students.
Community engagement: Some of the value of education lies in its ability to change the way Milpark and others live. Milpark has integrated a community engagement project into the curriculum in a way that has created new and sustainable relationships between students and the NPOs and NGOs they support.
Programmes of an excellent standard: MBS’s academics consult with industry and other academic institutions to ensure that its programmes are of an excellent standard. This makes for work-ready graduates who are able to take on studies to the next level.
Ethics: All Milpark Education qualifications integrate ethics into their curricula, while certain qualifications (such as the MBA) have dedicated ethics modules. Through the teaching of ethics and the integration of the principles of ethical conduct into its qualifications, MBS produces graduates with a keen sense of their responsibility and accountability towards others.
The Inspiring Training Grounds
Modern management requires the practical implementation of skills learned; hence the MBA pedagogy leans strongly towards perception, creative thinking, and learning. MBS recognises the complexity of the environment, and that learning takes place through a partly controlled, creative conscious thought process. Thus, in creating the MBA learning environment, Milpark provides conversational learning, acting, and reflecting, feeling and thinking, and influencing students to take charge of their learning.
The environment is thus created in which students perform the skill in an environment as close as possible to that in which the work will be performed in real life, i.e., immersing them in the milieu, practising the skill and receiving constructive feedback from an expert.
The academic rollout
Milpark Business School (MBS) currently offers the following:
• Doctor of Business Administration
• Master of Business Administration
• Postgraduate Diploma in Business Administration
• Postgraduate Diploma in Public Administration
• Postgraduate Diploma in Investment Management
• Postgraduate Diploma in Banking
• Executive Education
MBS acknowledges that students’ learning cannot be separated from their overall experience of life. Accordingly, MBS recognises the significance of encouraging and supporting the student learning experience. Teaching and learning, therefore, focuses on achieving a balance between academic integrity and coherence and sector relevance and applicability. Subsequently, a learning environment is created that promotes growth-producing experiences for students, impacting all three modes of learning, i.e., cognitively, emotionally, and physically, with students being the focus in the teaching-learning transaction.
A Class Apart!
Milpark Business School has been providing quality scholarships in response to management education 4.0 and the world of work. The institute is also a key contributor to ethical and sustainable business practices mentioned in the SDGs (sustainable development goals).
“Our mission is to develop ethical leaders for the common good,” said the Dean of Milpark Business School, Dr Cobus Oosthuizen. “This mission is firmly rooted in its values of integrity, respect, excellence, and innovation,” he added.
Ethical and sustainable business practices are at the heart of the teaching and research philosophy at MBS. The school empowers future leaders to pursue ethical and sustainable business practices informed by sustainable development goals. Its reason for being is built on the Greek or the Ancient Greek word Phronesis which in English means practical wisdom. This emphasizes not only the development of great business leaders but leadership for the common good.
The Cultivated Leader of MBS
Dr Cobus Oosthuizen is the Dean of Milpark Business School. Cobus’ areas of specialisation are Leadership, Entrepreneurship, and Strategy, with keen interests extending into the areas of technology, innovation, complexity, philosophy, artificial intelligence, futures studies, ethics, sustainability, and the Fourth Industrial Revolution.
Dr Oosthuizen gives due recognition and acknowledgement to the MBS faculty members who contributed largely to the success of the institution: Dr Jane Usher – Academic Director, Andries Fourie – Head of Executive Education, Dr Frederick Herbst – Head of Research, as well as all the senior lecturers, programme managers, and the alumni coordinator.
Dr Oosthuizen’s current research focus is the Fourth Industrial Revolution and its influence on strategy, leadership, management practice and the world of work. He believes that we are not captives to a pre-determined set of choices, but that the future offers many possible outcomes, and that as a collective, we should aim at creating pathways that enable the enactment of individual and social events to shape a preferred future in which all stakeholders will benefit.
Cobus contributes regularly to popular press, has presented papers at academic conferences, published refereed journal articles, contributed book chapters, and acts is reviewer for a number of academic journals. He also supervises master’s and doctoral students and serves as an external examiner for master’s and doctoral dissertations, and PhD proposal defence panel member for various South African universities.
Cobus is a board member of the International Business Conference, a member of the Southern Africa Institute for Management Scientists, and the Institute of Directors, Southern Africa.
Inside the Milpark Experience
Milpark’s flexible study options let you choose between contact or distance learning online, and the qualifications are registered and accredited with the relevant authorities.
Milpark’s flagship qualification, the MBA, received AMBA accreditation in 2018 and is the only AMBA-accredited MBA in Africa for both contact and online distance learning. With this accreditation, Milpark’s MBA has joined the top 2% of global business schools in over 70 countries.
Milpark’s highly qualified academic staff have extensive industry experience, which ensures a learning environment that promotes growth-producing experiences for students. The courses’ content is relevant, contemporary, and updated regularly.
Milpark Business School also boasts excellent utilisation of technology, enabling easy online registration, administrative processes (results, documentation, etc.), academic support (including study plans, extra articles, exam guidelines, and self-assessment questions), and tutor support.
Aspiring to Make a Difference
Milpark Business School’s focus is to empower future leaders to pursue ethical and sustainable business practices mentioned in the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) adopted by the United Nations.
The 17 SDGs are a set of aspirations aimed to assist in tackling the global challenges being faced by the world, amongst others, reduce poverty, economic, social, and gender inequality, and environmental destruction, whilst bringing about peace and sustainable governance practices by 2030.
It’s an exciting time to study at Milpark Business School!
Website: www.milpark.ac.za
Email address: mbs@milpark.ac.za
