INDUSTRY INSIGHT
100 programmes, compared to 11 in 2020 and eight in 2016. This steady increase reflects a broader shift rather than isolated success stories. Moreover, the presence of three Chinese institutions in the ranking’s latest top 10 confirms how previously emerging markets can rapidly reposition themselves at the highest levels. While at an earlier stage, Africa’s trajectory is following a similar pattern, with Rabat Business School now placing inside the top 20; a milestone that would have seemed improbable a decade ago. In executive education, the trend is even more established and several business schools in Africa are regularly ranked by the Financial Times for their open and custom programmes. Institutions such as Lagos Business School, the University of Cape Town Graduate School of Business, the University of Pretoria’s Gordon Institute of Business Science, Henley Business School Africa and the Onsi Sawiris School of Business at the American University in Cairo have become recognised players in a highly competitive global market. Of course, ranking placements should not be interpreted as endpoints, but as signals of deeper institutional transformation. Increased programme internationalisation, the professionalisation of executive education and closer alignment with global standards are taking place at a number of leading schools, alongside a strong anchoring in their local and regional ecosystems. Taken together, these developments indicate that Africa is now an integral part of the global management education landscape, rather than an emerging exception. A bridge in an evolving ecosystem The case of Rabat Business School offers an illustration of how institutions in Africa are positioning themselves within an evolving ecosystem. Having secured AACSB accreditation in 2020 and EQUIS more recently as well as holding BGA membership, the school has now also begun the process of obtaining AMBA accreditation for its executive MBA programme, signalling its commitment to international standards of excellence. In addition, 90 per cent of its academic partners hold international accreditation. Beyond accreditation, Rabat Business School has invested heavily in international, English-language programme design and faculty development. In 2024, for example, a bachelor’s programme was
capacity, accreditations and global partnerships. Rankings and reputational recognition came later, once these structural transformations were sufficiently advanced. Africa now appears to be at a comparable stage. Across the continent, leading business schools are undergoing rapid upscaling, supported by institutional investment and a clear will to align with international quality benchmarks such as AACSB, AMBA, BGA and EQUIS. These accreditations are not pursued as branding exercises alone, but as frameworks for an institution’s internal transformation, professionalising executive education, strengthening assurance of learning processes and embedding ethics into curricula. This phase of institutional development is often underestimated by external observers, as the cases of China and India have demonstrated. However, the recent history of schools in Asia also suggests that once institutions in Africa reach maturity in their processes of alignment, they will be able to become key actors in the global system, not as outliers but as peers. Rankings provide imperfect but powerful signals of structural change and recent data illustrates the growing integration of both Asia and Africa into the global management education market. The master’s in management ranking from the Financial Times is particularly revealing. In 2025, 17 business schools based in the Asia-Pacific region appeared in its list of
Business Impact • ISSUE 2 • 2026
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