Wits Business School (WBS) has established a new partnership with the Namibia Business School (NBS), which will officially consolidate and strengthen the longstanding relationship between the University of the Witwatersrand and the University of Namibia.

This institutional partnership between WBS and NBS identified a number of areas of possible collaboration that embodies all facets of student and faculty exchanges, postgraduate research and supervision, executive education, global study tours, PhD supervision capacity building, external examination and moderation, and grant research proposal writing.

Speaking about the visit to NBS, WBS Director of Development and Partnerships Professor Mills Soko said that effective cooperation between WBS and NBS will contribute significantly to both business schools’ strategic and operational goals, including Africanisation and internationalisation.

“As African business schools it is important to build partnerships with like-minded institutions, opening up opportunities to enhance the learning experience and entrench an international mindset. WBS is delighted to consolidate our ties with NBS and look forward to many initiatives which will be of mutual benefit.”

NBS has previously acted as an anchor campus for WBS students taking part in the SADC study tour and they reaffirmed their commitment to continue to do this.

Apart from capacity building in various academic and research areas, delegates from both schools also agreed to prioritise and maximise on the massive collaborative opportunity in executive education.

During the visit to Windhoek, WBS delegates met with other partners and existing clients, including representatives of the Bank of Namibia, Southern African Customs Union Secretariat, Namibia Financial Institutions Supervisory Authority, MVAFund Namibia and NamPower. The clients showed deep appreciation of the WBS delegation visit and expressed their high rating of WBS programmes in terms of quality and depth. “These are very important relationships and we need to nurture them continuously, we cannot, and should not, take them for granted,” added Professor Soko.

In addition to the visit, the Namibian chapter of the WBS alumni association was also launched. Alumni members who were present committed to contributing to the school and expressed their will to assist in deepening WBS’ commercial footprint in their country. “Through our growing alumni body we can establish Namibia as our second largest market in executive education after South Africa,” Professor Soko concluded.

By Medupi Lamola, Marketing Communication Manager, Wits Business School