“Business schools have generally been teaching business, business and more business. We've realised that capitalism needs a new model,” he said

Walter Baets, director of the GSB, says the centre will not rehash courses on ethics or sustainability. Instead, the focus will be on encouraging MBA students to fully realise projects and business ideas that make a real positive impact on society. They will have access to communities and to mentors to build on their ideas and create companies.

“We are looking for people who demonstrate a strong moral character, strong entrepreneurial drive, a track record of action, leadership qualities, traits of social activism and a commitment to the sustainable development of emerging economies,” says Baets. Applications for the MBA scholarship, for which five people will be selected, will be open all year.

Applications for the PhD scholarship, however, close on April, 1 as the programme starts this winter.

It is valued at R450 000 (R150 000 per annum) and is focused towards researching social entrepreneurship or informal sector entrepreneurship.

The former refers to those organisations, non-profit or otherwise, whose primary function is to deal with problems of poverty, education, housing, literacy, healthcare, unemployment and other social ills. Informal sector entrepreneurship refers to the sector of the economy that goes undetected by tax officials and statisticians.

The lack of information available for this sector is precisely the reason for this scholarship.

Baets says that there are examples emerging all over the world of business channelling its efforts toward social innovation, changing people's lives for the better, protecting the planet, and of course, making a profit and that there is new impetus towards building a better world through business.

“Business has not always been for the collective good and we've reached a point where that has to change. And who better to drive that change than business schools? The hope is that this centre will get the momentum going to use business to find solutions for social problems,” says Baets.

The UCT GSB has been rated the best value-for-money MBA in the world, and has moved up six places from last year to be ranked 54th in the latest Financial Times (FT) of London’s Global MBA Top 100. The UCT GSB is the only African business school ranked in the top 100. - Sungula Nkabinde