Wits Business School (WBS) recently signed an Exchange and Partnership Agreement with the ICHEC Brussels Management School (ICHEC). The signing of this agreement coincided with the royal mission and official state visit to South Africa by the King Philippe and Queen Mathilde of Belgium in Pretoria in March 2023.

The agreement was signed by Professor Maurice Radebe, the Head and Director of WBS, and Professor Brigitte Chanoine, the Rector of ICHEC. It makes provision for academic, cultural and scientific cooperation between the two schools.

Speaking at the signing of the partnership agreement event in Pretoria, Professor Radebe said: “ICHEC is a leading business school in Belgium and we are thrilled to have been approached by them to enter into this partnership. The partnership will not only provide Wits Business School with the opportunity to collaborate with one of Belgium’s most prominent business schools, but it will also enable us to expand our footprint in Europe.”

Professor Chanoine showed her appraisal of the agreement, saying that “For ICHEC Brussels Management School this means that we are in the start of establishing this partnership through collaborative relations between the two institutions to promote friendship and to cooperate in a mutually beneficial association that fosters a deeper relationship between Belgium and South Africa.”

Reflecting on why they chose to partner with Wits Business School, Professor Chanoine said ICHEC has been training its students to become responsible managers who are open to the world. “We train our students to become responsible, open-minded managers. The ICHEC spirit is founded on the values of respect, solidarity, and integrity. The pillars of its teaching are based on international openness, academic excellence, innovative pedagogy and business experience. By comparing our mission, vision and values with Wits [Business School], we found a lot of similarities in that way. This was confirmed by our discussions with Professor Mills Soko [WBS Director of Development and Partnerships] before deciding to sign the agreement”, she concluded.

The two institutions will encourage cooperation and collaboration through postgraduate students exchange programmes, fostering research collaborations, interchange of teaching expertise, and short-term visiting lectureships between the two faculties, as well as the transfer of knowledge of administrative practices between the two schools.

The ICHEC Brussels Management School is a Brussels-based management school which was founded in 1954. It has several training and research centres and offers university-level management training programmes in both daytime and evening courses, in both undergraduate and continuing education.

ICHEC is the first French-speaking Belgian business school to have obtained the American quality label Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business (AACSB). For more than 20 years, ICHEC has developed multiple and solid collaborations with more than 120 international partners throughout the world. These involve student mobility, faculty exchanges, the development of joint programmes and research.

In its vision to be a leading African business school firmly embedded among the best schools internationally, WBS continues to develop strategic relationships and partnerships with top schools around the world with a view to enhance the learning experience and entrench an international mindset to benefit its students and faculty.

By Medupi Lamola, Marketing & Communication Manager, Wits Business School