Divisive Washington politics risk weakening international universities’ commitment to diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI), but South African business schools are standing firm.
In a move that many fear will discourage business schools all over the world from promoting DEI, a leading US-based international accreditation agency has buckled under pressure from US President Donald Trump and removed DEI from its guiding accreditation principles.
The Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business (AACSB), whose accreditation is considered a gold standard in business education, recently replaced references to DEI in its accreditation manual with the less confrontational (but vague) term “community and connectedness”.
While some critics fear this will undermine the imperative of DEI and encourage business schools to do less in this area, all the deans and directors canvassed by the FM strongly disagree, arguing that local institutions don’t need an accreditation carrot to do what is right.
Instead of wilting, the two other main international accreditation agencies — the UK-based Association of MBAs (Amba) and European Foundation for Management Development (whose accreditation is known as Equis) — have doubled down on explicit DEI criteria.
The upshot, according to Cobus Oosthuizen, dean of postgraduate studies at Boston City Campus, is that any business school that wants to be Amba- or Equis-accredited cannot merely talk about inclusion; it must produce direct evidence of it across its staffing, curriculum, research, strategy and external impact.
“Yes, the [AACSB’s] wording change from ‘diversity and inclusion’ to ‘community and connectedness’ is capitulation to a polarised US political climate,” he says. “But an adjective in Tampa shouldn’t determine the moral chemistry of Joburg, Lagos or London.
“If a school’s commitment to widening participation can be switched off by a few deleted lines in an accreditation manual, that commitment was paper-thin to begin with.”
All the educators interviewed for this article point out that South African schools operate in a constitutional and legislative order that hardwires redress and equity into the system. Moreover, it is overseen by the Council on Higher Education, which frames transformation — access, success and staff diversity — as non-negotiable.
Jon Foster-Pedley, dean and director of Henley Business School Africa, explains that South Africa’s unique sociopolitical history, particularly its apartheid legacy, has created a strong imperative for DEI initiatives in education and business.
“South Africa has one of the most progressive constitutions in the world and this provides us with a framework for a more just and inclusive society, ensuring that DEI principles are not just aspirational but legally mandated,” he says.
Oosthuizen agrees. “If the AACSB’s softer language tempts any local school to backslide, it will collide almost immediately with the country’s national regulator, broad-based BEE legislation and, more importantly, the expectations of students whose lived histories carry the scars of exclusion,” he says.
He likens the AACSB’s climbdown to a form of desalination.
“When you go to the beach, you won’t find a sign saying ‘salt water’. The sea is salty! It is what it is! In the same way, a business school that needs an accreditor to remind it about diversity has already diluted its very essence,” he says.
“In South Africa we have already learnt, often painfully, that pretending colour-blindness is not neutral, it is negligent. Our task is to keep the salt concentrated — in other words, to teach, hire and [conduct] research in ways that taste unmistakably of justice, whether or not an American rubric says so.
“Anything less would be academic desalination, producing bland leaders for an ocean that is still roaring with inequity.”
At a recent conference in Berlin, the Amba & Business Graduates Association reaffirmed the centrality of DEI to Amba’s mission as an international accreditation body. Rhodes Business School dean Owen Skae says the tone, content and structure of discussions made it unequivocally clear that DEI remains integral to the values and standards of international accreditation.
“The spirit of commitment was palpable and, tellingly, uncontested,” he tells the FM.
Skae believes that if business schools are to remain globally relevant and responsible, they must be inclusive and actively promote diversity and equity — not as a box-ticking exercise but as a core performance imperative.
“We operate in a society still contending with the structural legacies of exclusion,” he adds. “If our business schools are not actively shaping a more inclusive and equitable future, we risk failing both our students and the evolving needs of the broader society.
“DEI is not an optional, moral add-on; it is a strategic necessity. Diverse teams perform better. Inclusive cultures unlock innovation. Equitable systems are more sustainable and just.”
This is why Rhodes has embedded DEI as an MBA elective, focusing on how it shapes corporate strategy, decision-making, culture, innovation and, ultimately, performance outcomes.
As for those who may dismiss DEI as nonsense, Skae is clear: “That view ignores empirical evidence, historical context and the moral arc of inclusive democracy. It reduces education to replication, rather than transformation. And in doing so, it forfeits the opportunity to lead.”
Stellenbosch Business School is one of three local institutions with AACSB accreditation, along with the University of Cape Town’s Graduate School of Business (GSB) and the University of Pretoria’s Gordon Institute of Business Science (Gibs). At least two other schools have begun the accreditation process. Henley Africa is also accredited, through its Henley UK parent school.
Armand Bam, Stellenbosch’s head of social impact, describes the AACSB move as not just a shift in language but a “betrayal” of the principles of transformative education.
“This Faustian bargain will leave a moral scar on the integrity of the association and those that follow suit,” he wrote in a recent FM article.
“Our institutions cannot afford to follow the lead of US universities that fear political backlash more than they value justice,” he added, noting that affirmative action rollbacks in the US, where the Supreme Court recently struck down race-conscious university admission policies, have resulted in declining diversity at elite institutions.
This is not just an American issue; it has global ramifications, he insisted, arguing that the AACSB’s decision reflects “a deep-seated fear” of the transformation that true education demands.
“Business schools must resist the lure of depoliticising diversity and inclusion, for doing so turns them into institutions that reinforce, rather than reform, the status quo,” said Bam.
“A truly transformative education does not merely produce business leaders who uphold existing structures but also cultivates those who challenge and reshape them.”
Gibs dean Morris Mthombeni is more forgiving of the AACSB’s actions, which, he says, were forced upon it “by an existential crisis not of its making”. He says: “We are obviously disappointed about the turn of events. However, we believe it would be naive to accuse the AACSB of moral weakness. We welcome [its] approach to encourage each of its members to live their values. To this end, Gibs continues to prioritise diversity, equity, inclusion and belonging in its teaching, research and engagement activities.”
While global frameworks provide important benchmarks, South African institutions don’t require external incentives to recognise the moral and social imperative of inclusion, agrees Regenesys Education, a private higher education institution based in Sandton.
“The AACSB’s symbolic shift may dilute global momentum, but in South Africa, transformation is not optional — it’s imperative,” says corporate education CEO Nishen Munnisunker.
Regenesys dean Sibongiseni Kumalo adds: “DEI is about restorative justice; it’s about healing history, creating access and enabling social mobility. In a country still marked by the structural legacies of apartheid, education is a critical tool for ensuring redress.
“We need to remain resolute in upholding the ethos of diversity and inclusion and not water them down to appease those who hold differing views.”
Why does supporting DEI matter for business and the economy?
Giving effect to DEI principles in higher education (or in any business) is about much more than obeying the law and enhancing an organisation’s reputation or striving for good optics. Countries pay a very real economic penalty for inequality.
“Excluding people from the economy imposes a heavy tax on growth and weakens the foundations of economic resilience because talent is underused, productivity is lost and innovation is slower,” explains Foster-Pedley.
DEI will always matter, he says, because “you can’t build the people who build the businesses that build Africa if you are excluding any single group”.
Rayner Canning, the GSB’s director of business development, says that in addition to leveraging the talents of the entire organisation (which requires inclusion of multiple voices in decision-making and leadership), local businesses also serve a variety of customers and need to understand them to better serve their needs.
He cites the example of Capitec, which has become one of the country’s biggest banks by understanding the previously unbanked customer segment.
Oosthuizen identifies three additional reasons that DEI matters:
- Cognitive diversity produces better problem-solvers and more commercially relevant research while mitigating groupthink, a root cause of many corporate governance failures.
- A deeper talent pipeline for the economy: when historically excluded groups gain high-level management skills, the private sector’s leadership bench widens, which is imperative given South Africa’s youth swell and skills shortage.
- In a society with a post-apartheid trust deficit, inclusive institutions serve as visible proof that a meritocracy is possible.
How do business schools inculcate and teach DEI?
Typically, the first step is through inclusive hiring and leadership development practices to ensure the institution reflects the country’s demographics.
“As one of the most unequal societies in the world, we need deliberate DEI policies in the workplace if we are to move beyond these social disparities that have limited economic mobility for historically disadvantaged groups,” says Foster-Pedley.
Henley is proud of the fact that 78% of its team is black and 75% are women. Its MBA class is also very diverse, comprising 85% black South Africans and more than 51% women — up from 30% and 20% respectively in 2011.
“We’ve had to integrate DEI deeply into our curricula and institutional culture to address systemic inequalities and foster social cohesion,” says Foster-Pedley.
“In the classroom, we strive to be it, not just teach DEI,” he explains, though teaching about the frameworks of DEI and research around the impact of DEI in the workplace are also needed.
“The premise of all our teaching in management practice is that we strive to make life fairer for people so that they can be included and perform at the highest level. This approach naturally includes discussions on equality and parity.
“In a healthily diverse MBA cohort, if the dialogue in a class is skewed against DEI, there is going to be protest and pushback. Robust conversation around these issues is a staple.”
Regenesys aims to teach DEI not only through formal curriculum content — such as through modules on leadership, ethics and governance — but also through students’ lived experience. Its student body is diverse, its programmes are intentionally inclusive, and both access and funding options are flexibly structured.
“DEI shows up in the case studies we select, the way our faculty facilitates dialogue, and the real-world projects that serve underserved communities,” say its accreditation heads, Louie Swanepoel and Noeleen Moodley.
“Our commitment to DEI is critical to developing empathetic, culturally aware leaders equipped for modern business.”
This commitment is backed up by specific initiatives to ensure Regenesys’s programmes are accessible, equitable and inclusive. These include EdforAll and Study All, through which students are able to study from as little as R500 a month.
In addition, it has embedded DEI into its curriculum by identifying six “graduate attributes” which it believes are needed for students to enter society as responsible citizens, equipped for the world of work.
One of the six enjoins students “to harness diversity”. It focuses on developing collaborative skills, teaching students to value individual differences, build diverse teams, be socially intelligent, and communicate effectively across cultures. In other words, it’s about developing leaders who can navigate complexity with empathy.
How does Boston City Campus enact DEI once the slogans are stripped away? It does so by embedding diversity into enrolment routes, entrenching equity into the institution’s financial and academic scaffolding, and fostering inclusion in the daily student support it provides.
Oosthuizen breaks this down into five key mechanisms:
- By stacking micro-credentials, recognising prior learning and waiving application fees, Boston lowers the structural barriers that have historically excluded many South Africans from higher education.
- By offering a distance-learning core programme, 47 physical support sites and e-learning infrastructure. This means students can study in their own language, community, home or workplace without relocating — something that is important in a country where geography and transport costs are major hurdles.
- Academic counselling, wellness referrals, disability accommodations and support for graduate placement are offered on the understanding that inclusion is not only about gaining entry to an institution but also about belonging and success.
- Upfront textbook provision, transparent all-in fee structures and pay-over-time options counter the hidden costs that often derail students with limited means.
- External accreditation and memberships of professional bodies mean students earn qualifications that carry weight locally and abroad, closing the gap between access to education and equitable outcomes from education.
Do South African business schools punch above their weight on DEI?
Quantitatively, yes, according to Oosthuizen. He points out, for instance, that local MBA cohorts routinely exceed 50% black African enrolment, whereas many of our North Atlantic peer institutions struggle to reach double digits for their underrepresented minorities.
He also thinks South African schools stand out qualitatively because they often integrate socioeconomic mobility and community development into capstone projects — areas still treated as extracurricular in many other countries. For instance, international universities increasingly cite South Africa’s blended-learning outreach to rural students and scholarship-led corporate partnerships as best-practice cases.
But this doesn’t mean South African higher education has all the answers.
“The academic pipeline for black women professors remains shallow, support for disabled students is uneven and xenophobia occasionally mars campus life,” Oosthuizen concedes.
But measured against resource constraints, South African schools have developed innovative funding models, articulation pathways and forms of peer-mentoring that many wealthier countries are only beginning to pilot.
Regenesys thinks South Africa is leading the way in many respects. “The legacy of apartheid forces us to confront inequity head-on. We cannot afford to be abstract or apolitical about inclusion,” argues chief academic officer Elizabeth Moore.
“Institutions like ours have become microcosms of national transformation, experimenting with inclusive governance, affordable access models and applied learning that directly engages systemic inequality.”
In short, while the rest of the world debates the relevance of DEI in education, Regenesys believes that “South African institutions continue to demonstrate that diversity is not a distraction from excellence — it forms its very foundation”.
Foster-Pedley says South Africa could be considered a model for global best practice. That said, he concedes that despite these efforts, the country still grapples with the highest levels of income inequality in the world.
“This highlights a significant gap between DEI theory and practice and underscores the ongoing challenges in translating policy into equitable outcomes,” he says. “There is still much work to do.”