"Edinburgh School Takes Online MBA to Africa"

The article “Edinburgh School Takes Online M.B.A. to Africa” from the New York Times on September 19^th shows the effects of an interesting use for Information Technology: online education programs. The online MBA program from the Heriot-Watt University of Edinburgh provides funding to select students in southern Africa with the hopes of granting people an education that may have otherwise been impossible to get. The classes, including business courses such as Organizational Behavior, have already been praised for their real-world application potential by students such as Tony Moonja. The program hopes to give some people in Africa the chance to pursue their humanitarian or business goals armed with higher education, which will most likely also help the communities in which they live (Guttenplan).

This article did not talk speak about some new-fangled cell phone or computer, but it did talk about a pretty significant change occurring in southern Africa with the help of Information Technology. Praised by British newspaper The Times as “Scotland’s most international institution,” with pretty high ranking for the overall university (as well as its extensive online program), Heriot-Watt University is a prestigious institution in which students are guaranteed to learn a lot. The scholarship discussed in the article, which would save a prospective MBA student around $6,000, would allow a postgraduate student without the means to pursue an MBA the chance to do so, thus enabling him or her to develop into the next entrepreneur, humanitarian, or successful business leader. These are all roles that need to be filled in Africa just as everywhere else, and Heliot-Watt is providing those necessary skills and knowledge to a group of 250 deserving students. In Economics, education is described as a public good, in that the education of one person results in benefitting the people around them. I believe the goal of this scholarship is to provide that common good to communities in Africa through MBA educations, and this can most probably happen given the goals of students partaking in the program. For example, Martha Sambani, who works at the University of Malawi, hopes to take the skills she will learn in the program to help the university generate more funding and expand. These changes can definitely occur, especially when the person who wishes to make the change is well-educated and capable of making a difference.

Information technology utilized by Heliot-Watt University has changed people’s lives for the better across the globe. Without Heliot-Watt’s use of technology to upload seminars, quizzes, readings, and exams, none of these students may have been exposed to the same quality of MBA education. The university’s ability to take an MBA education and add flexibility (both in location and class times), makes an education accessible to virtually anyone. However, I must say the fact that it is an MBA program associated with the scholarship makes the program less far reaching than it could be, considering those enrolled in the program must have already gained some education to reach the graduate level. Perhaps scholarships should be applied to undergraduate study as well, whether from Heliot-Watt or another institution. For example, another online education program making a change is in Haiti, where the Clinton Global Initiative and the University of the People will provide education to 250 qualified students free of charge (Cook). While not an MBA program, the school plans to educate the youth of Haiti as they rebuild their country after their recent earthquake. The results of online education there may be even more impressive than in southern Africa, where candidates for scholarships must be at the postgraduate level. The increasing number of online educational programs for countries in need also suggests a future for IT in places such as northern Africa, China, and India (all mentioned in the New York Times article); we may one day live in a world where everyone who needs an education can find the means to get it.

Here’s yet another example of how online education is changing the world, this time in Chhindwara, India.

Sources:

Cook, Tracy L. “Clinton to help set up online university for students in Haiti.” Gather News Source Online. 20 Sept. 2010. Web. 21 Sept. 2010. Article.action?articleId=281474978533136>

Guttenplan, D. "Edinburgh School Takes Online MBA to Africa.” The New York Times. 19 Sept. 2010. Web. 21 Sept. 2010. educLede20.html?_r=2&pagewanted=2&ref=world>.

"Profile: Heriot-Watt University | Good University Guide - Times Online." The Times. 31 May 2009. Web. 21 Sept. 2010. education/good_university_guide/article2166505.ece>.