"We are extremely pleased and honoured by the announcement," says UCT GSB marketing intelligence and strategy manager Saskia Hickey, who attended the 7th Eduniversal World Convention in Istanbul where the announcement was made at a gala dinner and award ceremony on 22 October.
The UCT GSB was also awarded the 5 Palmes of Excellence for being a universal business school with a strong global presence. Eduniversal is a Paris-based global ranking and rating agency specialising in higher education.
"The GSB strives to be not only the best business school in Africa, but also one of the top schools in the world, recognised for thought leadership and values-based business education. Being recognised by our peers is a vital part of that and we are deeply gratified by the announcement," says Hickey.
At the convention, 250 deans and directors from prestigious business schools gathered for workshops and lectures to promote internationalisation of higher education and student mobility. More than 120 schools from 60 countries participated.
The Eduniversal International Scientific Committee (ISC) nominates a selection of 1,000 business schools from 153 countries, across nine geographic zones. Schools are nominated based on a global mapping system made up of criteria such as universality and international reputation. From the selection, deans and directors of the business schools are asked to vote for the school they recommend most.
This year, the top business school in the world was voted to be The Copenhagen Business School-CBS in Denmark, followed by the Harvard Business School and the London Business School.
Hickey says the UCT GSB is proud of its accolades and awards, which also include the business school's full-time MBA being the only one in Africa to feature in the Financial Times' 2013 Top 100 Global MBA Ranking.
UCT's GSB is also one of just 66 business schools worldwide to be triple-crowned, having accreditation from the European Foundation for Management Development (EQUIS); the Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business (AACSB); and The Association of MBAs (AMBA).
UCT GSB Director Professor Walter Baets says that the GSB is committed to its mission to raise the profile of emerging market business schools as centres of excellence and thought leadership and to create the conditions to allow innovative responses to African challenges to emerge.
"But we cannot go this road alone," says Professor Baets. "We appreciate the support and input of our peers as well as our students and faculty to help shape the business school into the kind of space where change is encouraged to happen, and where leaders are developed that are able to facilitate and encourage change in organisations."
He adds, "We want to provide students, both local and from all over the world, with the knowledge and skills to take on the challenge of this, the emerging market decade. Awards such as Eduniversal's are affirmations that we are on the right track, going into the right direction."
