Milpark Education offers South Africa’s first online MBA, BCom and BBA

Milpark Education, leaders in distance learning in South Africa, have announced the launch of their new online MBA (Masters of Business Administration), Bachelor of Commerce (BCom) and Bachelor of Business Administration (BBA), making them the first institution of higher learning to do so in the country.

Executive Dean, Esther Venter, comments, “Drawing on lessons learnt over the past few years, Milpark Education embarked on the creation of novel products unrivalled in the South African distance learning landscape. It is a total redevelopment of distance learning delivery.” She continues, “We will be the first distance learning MBA in the country with online synchronous and asynchronous contact for interactive support and one lecturer per cohort of 25 students to curate the learning journey effortlessly and seamlessly.” 

Milpark's MBA was rated as the “number one private provider and number two overall of the MBA degree in the 2016 PMR.africa awards for business schools offering MBA/MBL degrees in South Africa. Dr Cobus Oosthuizen, Dean of Milpark Business School, commented at the launch event, “As indicated by a recent survey amongst employers by the Graduate Management Admission Council (GMAC), the majority of employers still regard the MBA as a high-value degree and are eager to hire MBA graduates. He continues, “Our Distance Learning Online (DLO) MBA students will experience learning and support possibly exceeding that of classroom-learning students, no matter how remotely they might be situated.” 

Commenting further, Dean Venter substantiates the importance of e-learning: “We have seen a substantial increase in applications over the past few years, so for us it was inevitable to offer an interactive online MBA.”  

Further to this, the institution, through its School of Commerce, has pioneered a brand-new approach for its BCom and BBA qualifications via online learning by offering modules in six eight-week sessions per year. Dr Joseph Sekhampu, Dean of Milpark Education School of Commerce, said at a recent panel discussion that “The Distance Learning Online (DLO) approach would open doors of learning to people who are in industries where there is a demand for a formal qualification for career enhancement and wish for flexibility in their studies”. 

Key features of the BCom and BBA include the following:

• Six intakes per year for both qualifications — prospective students do not have to wait for one of the two conventional intakes per year to register.
• Each module can be paid for separately, making for better budgeting.
• An opportunity to focus on one module at a time, after which the exam is taken before moving on to the next module.
• Live lecturing sessions and interactive group discussions. 

Milpark Education has created a quality interactive learning experience which is flexible enough for students to study at their own convenience, independently of place and time. Students participate in live online lecturing sessions and asynchronous online group discussions. Multiple instances of assessment will ensure student progress. 

Speaking at the launch event last week, Arthur Goldstuck, founder of World Wide Worx, challenged educational institutions , and said “Everyone is connected, every teacher has access to every tool, and every student has access to all information. Yet, much of our education is still based on nineteenth-century systems, styles and philosophies.” He praised Milpark for introducing initiatives that use digital tools to enhance learning. 

With South Africa’s rapid increase in Internet usage, Goldstuck predicts that by the year 2020, of the 24.6m Internet users in South Africa, 18.5m will be involved in the digital economy. He continued to say that the classroom of tomorrow will have to focus on problem-solving, creativity, collaboration, and negotiation in order to prepare the future workforce”. 

Goldstuck concludes, "You cannot prepare today's learner for tomorrow's technology, as we do not know what that technology might be. Even when we do know, how do you educate for technologies that will be mainstream, but which almost no one understands yet? For this reason, we should not be teaching technology for its own sake, but rather as an enabler for learning. In the same way, we need initiatives to use digital tools and resources to enhance the role of the teacher, rather than replace it."

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