A TRANSFORMATIVE LEARNING EXPERIENCE
Invest in yourself, your career and your organisation
The Executive MBA programme is a transformative learning experience targeted at senior managers and executive leaders who consciously want to enhance their ability to conceptualise, rather than their proficiency in functional management.
EMBA candidates will learn to:
- Go beyond knowledge and theory to include the felt experience of being in management
- Become more authentic in their engagement
- Find new purpose and fulfilment in their role and develop greater resilience in the workplace
- Develop the capacity to integrate multiple perspectives and strategies to build more holistic and sustainable organisations
* Application & Course fees are provisional for 2023, and are subject to annual UCT council approval
uct gsb EMBA Overview
The Executive MBA programme is a transformative learning experience made up of five courses and a minor dissertation over a 24 month period. Learn more about the UCT GSB EMBA. Learn more about which attributes and qualifications are required for the UCT GSB EMBA. The Executive MBA programme comprises five interactive courses and with a dissertation.
WHAT OUR ALUMNI SAY
THINK AND LEAD DIFFERENTLY
Prepare yourself to lead in a world of new ideas
The UCT GSB EMBA will expose you to different ways of viewing the world, and build your capacity to integrate multiple perspectives and strategies for a more holistic and sustainable organisation.
For your convenience, this is a modular programme with a reasonable workload: five, two-week modules held at the UCT GSB Breakwater campus in Cape Town – South Africa’s most iconic and beautiful city.
About UCT GSB EMBA
#1+
Ranked EMBA in Africa#51
Ranked globally by QS Global EMBA RankingsFREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS
The UCT GSB Executive MBA (EMBA) is aimed at senior level, experienced individuals who consciously want to enhance their ability to conceptualise and execute, rather than their proficiency in functional management. Whereas, the MBA programme at the UCT GSB is geared toward aspiring up and coming managers who want to hone their management skills, and as such, the MBA is strong on content in respect of the core disciplines of management
An Executive MBA is not full-time. Learning on the EMBA is interactive and collaborative and happens both in class and in the workplace between modules. Although contact time at the UCT GSB is only 12 weeks over the two years, the EMBA is an immersive experience that will require consistent attention in between modules.
You will need to bring yourself and your experience to the classroom and be prepared to learn from others as much as from your teachers. The interactive nature of the programme requires that you attend all contact courses and contribute to the collective experience. Courses are assessed through group and individual assignments.
Once you graduate from the UCT GSB you will join our alumni network which is a dynamic forum comprising more than 23 000 past GSB students in 68 countries worldwide. Many of the GSB’s alumni hold key positions in top companies or have started their own successful businesses. Alumni play a vital role in supporting and encouraging more recent graduates to follow in their footsteps and GSB students who find employment after graduation - particularly internationally - frequently do so through alumni contacts.
EMBA applicants have two options, they either have to write the GMAT or the MCPA. You can write the Graduate Management Admissions Test (GMAT) and obtain an acceptable GMAT score of 550. The UCT GSB offers a five-day GMAT Preparation Course to help students prepare for the GMAT. Alternatively, candidates can choose to write the Management Career Path Appreciation Assessment (MCPA), which provides an indication of the candidate’s current and future capabilities.

MEET THE PROGRAMME DIRECTOR
ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR CAMILLE MEYER
Associate Professor Camille Meyer is the Academic Director of the EMBA Programme at the UCT GSB and lectures on Social Innovation and Entrepreneurship. His teaching and research adopt an interdisciplinary perspective to shed light on entrepreneurial, financial and ethical processes involved in the management of social innovations and natural resources. This perspective considers new approaches to business such as developing new financial models, social innovations, collaborative management and stakeholder partnerships for commons governance. His previous work in higher education includes academic roles at the Free University of Brussels (ULB, Belgium) and the University of Victoria (Canada).
Prior to moving into higher education, he worked for the international training centre of the International Labour Organization in Turin (Italy). His research won several awards, including the 2017 Emerald/EFMD Outstanding Doctoral Research Award (category Management and Governance), and the 2017 FIR-PRI Finance and Sustainability Best Ph.D. Thesis Award.
Upcoming Events
The Masters Chat Series: Scholarships
Join us for an exclusive online Masters scholarship chat session where you'll get the chance to learn about the different scholarship opportunities available for some of the UCT GSB Masters programmes.
Learn more RSVPExecutive Master of Business Administration (EMBA) Info Session
Join us for an information session webinar about the Executive Master of Business Administration (EMBA) at the UCT Graduate School of Business.
Learn more RSVPHarare, Zimbabwe: Academic Programmes Information Session
Find out what the UCT GSB's academic programmes can do for your professional development. Join UCT GSB Director Dr Catherine Duggan for this in-person information session.
Learn more RSVPLusaka, Zambia: Academic Programmes Information Session
Find out what the UCT GSB's academic programmes can do for your professional development. Join UCT GSB Director Dr Catherine Duggan for this in-person information session.
Learn more RSVPThe Chat Series: MBA vs EMBA. “Which MBA is best for me?”
Join us in person for an interactive chat to understand which MBA programme is best suited to your needs. What is the difference between MBA / EMBA?
Learn more RSVPCape Town, South Africa: Academic Programmes Information Session
Find out what the UCT GSB's academic programmes can do for your professional development. Join our UCT GSB Programme Directors for this in-person information session.
Learn more RSVPIdeas Exchange
News and thought leadership from Africa’s top business school

UCT GSB’s Executive MBA ranked among top 20 in the world for student satisfaction
Newest Financial Times ranking shows the Executive MBA at the University of Cape Town Graduate School of Business (UCT GSB) among the best of the best in alumni satisfaction and prior work experience, making it once again the only African programme to earn a spot on the prestigious list.
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Lessons Learnt: Advice for starting your career
Not many people can say they had to choose between completing their MBA and coaching the national female volleyball team, but Sean Lewis' career journey has been anything but linear. From high school teacher to working at Africa's leading premier ICT solutions services provider, and completing his EMBA along the way, Lewis has plenty of advice to share with graduates and career changers.
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Powering the continent’s growth through collaboration with entrepreneurs across Africa
EMBA alumnus Christophe Viarnaud is a man on a mission. The French national has made South Africa not only his home, but a country in which his passion for entrepreneurship and education has launched the ventures of scores of bright start-ups across the continent.
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MBA alumnus puts lockdown to good use
Steven van Rheede was part of the 2020 MBA class that, three months into the programme, quickly had to shift their studies online; it bore some unforeseen benefits, he says.
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Can we risk our society’s future on a system that produces the leadership we experience?
The events of the past two weeks have brought into sharp focus the devastating results of selecting leaders based on popularity over other criteria. To avoid shipwrecking our country, it’s time to design a better system of stewarding our collective needs.
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UCT’s Executive MBA programme is still number one in Africa
The QS 2021 Global EMBA Rankings have ranked the UCT Graduate School of Business’ EMBA programme number one in Africa and 51st in the world. This unique degree transforms executives by putting them into a better relationship with their lived experience to focus solving the complex problems of our times.
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We need leaders and managers who have the skills and moral compass to build a just world
We need leaders and managers who have the skills and moral compass to build a just world
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