Tom Ryan wants to give more South Africans the opportunity to do an MBA. To do this, Ryan, who co-designed the executive MBA at UCT’s Graduate School of Business, has developed SA’s first low-cost MBA equivalent.
Ryan was inspired by the story of an American, Laurie Pickard, who earned her now widely publicised "no-pay MBA" using massive open online courses (MOOCs) and other low-cost online resources. He has partnered with a Cape Town-based nonprofit organisation, Salesian Life Choices, to create a two-year business education for R38,000.
This is a fraction of the cost of MBAs offered by Wits, UCT and Stellenbosch — which range from R226,000 to R289,000 — and an even smaller portion of the fees for MBAs at top international business schools, amounting to well in excess of US$100,000.
Naturally, Ryan’s low-cost MBA doesn’t come with the same credibility as its higher-education equivalents, and it is not yet accredited within a recognised qualifications framework. But the plan is not to compete with conventional MBAs.
"We are increasing access to people who would not otherwise have had access and preparing them to work their way up through an organisation. The focus here is on middle management," Ryan tells the Financial Mail.
The idea is that course takers apply what they learn in their workplaces, improving their performance and career prospects.
While no undergraduate degree is required to be accepted into the low-cost MBA equivalent, a level of numeracy and literacy is. "We won’t accept anyone onto the programme who we don’t think will complete it successfully," says Ryan.
The course combines MOOCs from institutions including the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the University of Pennsylvania, with weekly peer-based meet-ups guided by a mentor. There is a week of full-time lectures at the beginning of the course, seven hours per week of self-study and online assessments at the end of each module.
Alongside obtaining certificates for completing the MOOCs, students will build up a portfolio of work to be assessed for recognition of prior learning by an accredited institution, as part of a further higher qualification.
Critics may raise an eyebrow at the fact that the low-cost MBA is not formally recognised. But Ryan is banking on the portfolio of work, rather than, say, a degree certificate, as evidence of what candidates have successfully completed and are capable of doing.
While sceptics may write it off as a half-baked attempt at a business education, the reality is that the market for MOOCs, available to anyone with an Internet connection, is growing.
In 2016, market research firm Frost & Sullivan estimated the size of the global MOOCs market to be about $2bn. The company, which lists the top three vendors as Coursera, edX and Udacity, expects it to grow to $8.5bn by 2022 — a 425% growth rate.
That the world’s most prestigious universities, such as Harvard, Stanford and Cambridge, offer MOOCs, has boosted their credibility.
And advancing digital technologies mean a demand for skills and expertise, such as in artificial intelligence and data science, which are not necessarily contained in a university degree.
"MOOCs have been quite a good way to upskill very quickly," says Sukaina Walji, online education project manager at UCT’s Centre for Innovation in Learning & Teaching. "Also, more and more MOOC providers are partnering directly with industry and co-creating certificates."
In a country where employers frequently bemoan a lack of workplace readiness among graduates, this could prove a powerful means for MOOCs to gain traction with companies — and give added relevance to programmes such as the low-cost MBA.
UCT, the first university in Africa to launch MOOCs on an international platform, spotted the strategic opportunity to share the university’s teaching and research with a wider audience. MOOCs have given a university at the southern tip of Africa access to a global pool of students: since launching its MOOCs in 2014, UCT has enrolled 185,000 individuals from 180 countries — though, in line with the international trend, only a small proportion complete every aspect of the courses.
It currently offers 12 MOOCs and plans to launch another eight or nine this year and next, says Walji.
Its most popular MOOC is a course called "What is the mind?", which (no surprise here) explores how the mind works.
Other favourites include "Understanding clinical research", aimed at medical students and practitioners embarking on research, and "Becoming a change maker: an introduction to social innovation".
MOOCs, says Walji, are different to traditional online courses in that there is no direct teaching.
"People work through materials and videos. They can learn with others through discussion forums and peer review activities," she explains.
While MOOCs globally have an average participation from African students of 5%, UCT’s MOOCs have an average African enrolment of 16%.
Similarly, Wits reports an average African enrolment above 20%, with one of its courses — a monitoring and evaluation course — boasting 35% African enrolment.
Wits put its first MOOCs on edX.org in 2016. "We’ve got six courses up at the moment and are working on another four," says Dominique Wooldridge, team leader: content services at Wits.
Since the launch, nearly 39,000 people have enrolled for Wits MOOCs, with a third of course-takers coming from the US. But completion rates are low and fewer than 800 (2%) of course-takers have purchased a certificate, Wooldridge says.
Generally, MOOCs themselves are free but MOOC certificates cost a nominal amount.
UCT reports similarly low numbers of students opting for a certificate, which generally costs around $40-$50, though it is possible to apply for a fee waiver.
"People use MOOCs for different reasons. Most people who do them already have degrees and great bandwidth, as they are often video-heavy," says Wooldridge.
A lot of people, she says, just "dip into" [MOOCs] to get a sense of what certain subjects are actually about in order to determine whether to study such courses formally.
Others use MOOCs simply as an information source, to find answers to particular questions, or simply for their own personal development, rather than as a career booster.
In any event, the extent to which MOOCs are taken seriously by prospective employers is unclear.
UCT is researching what value MOOC-takers actually derive from their MOOCs, says Walji.
While a growing number of people are sharing MOOC certificates on their LinkedIn profiles, employers in general remain more sceptical of online credentials, she says. "Generally, in the MOOC world, courses on business, computing and data science are extremely popular as they have a direct career impact," Walji says.
"I think we have a lot of work to do before this becomes an acceptable way of accessing a job," says Wooldridge.
This is largely because the vast majority of MOOCs are not formally accredited, in that they are not linked to any national or international qualifications framework.
In Wits’s case, MOOC-takers who successfully pass graded assignments receive an edX certificate signed by a Wits dean.
Gerrit Wissing, deputy director at Wits’s centre for learning, teaching & development, reckons that as employers hire people who have completed particular MOOCs, and are impressed with the value that these individuals add to the workplace, so those particular MOOCs will become increasingly recognised.
Mark Holgate, CEO of recruitment firm The Recruiters and a MOOC-taker himself, says companies are increasingly basing hiring decisions on skills rather than qualifications.
Ten years ago employers would specify a qualification and, he says, sometimes even a university. This has now generally moved to "relevant tertiary qualification".
"There is also an increase in testing [among employers]," says Holgate. In other words, getting a candidate to write a piece of code, create a trial balance or write up a marketing plan, proving they actually have the skills implied by their degree or diploma.
"If you’re not in a position to get a three-year degree, at least do a MOOC in an area you want to go into," says Holgate.
This may mean the difference between having nothing on your CV versus a MOOC certificate from Stanford or Harvard. "From an employer’s point of view it shows that people are at least applying themselves and trying to upskill themselves," he says.
Equally, if you’re someone who completed your degree two decades ago and have done no studies since, it can indicate you are still current and serious about what you do, he says.
MOOCs are not threatening universities just yet, says Walji. "In many cases, they enhance what universities do." MOOCs also provide universities with an opportunity to experiment with online learning, with the potential to develop more formal, paid-for courses, she says.
Considering that universities in the global north dominate the MOOC market, it is important that teaching from the global south is given exposure, says Walji. "Universities in Africa have much to offer globally."