BRIEF HISTORY

The School of Business was established in 1978, in response to the finding of a research team which consisted of representatives of the Government of the Republic of Zambia (GRZ), the International Labour Organisation (ILO), and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP).

The team discovered that over 2000 managerial and supervisory positions in parastatal companies, public institutions and private firms were filled by people who were either partially qualified or not qualified at all, and that Zambia did not have a pool of specialists in Business Management and Accountancy. As a consequence, performance of many companies and public institutions was hardly satisfactory at all.

In response to this finding, the Government of the Republic of Zambia set up the current School of Business in 1978, under the name of "School of Business and Industrial Studies" (SBIS) - as one of the consitituent of the University of Zambia at Ndola (UNZANDO). The aim was to redress the absence of a pool of specialists in Business Management and Accountancy.

UNZANDO was supposed to be located in Ndola. Hence the name: UNIVERSITY OF ZAMBIA AT NDOLA. Since the Ndola campus was not already built then, UNZANDO was located at the Zambia Institute of Technology (ZIT) in Kitwe, as a temporary site, pending the physical development of the campus in Ndola.

However, owing to its inability to finance the construction of the campus in Ndola during the ten years that followed, government decided to transform the ZIT campus into a University Campus. UNZANDO and ZIT were integrated in 1988 to form the present-day Copperbelt University. The Copperbelt University has ever since remained a public University. Shortly after the birth of the Copperbelt University, the SBIS was re-named 'School of Business' (SB).

When the School of Business was established in 1978, it offered two bachelor degree programmes, namely:

When the integration of UNZANDO and ZIT took place in 1988, the School of Business inherited three undergraduate Diploma Programmes, namely:

In 1992 a decision was made by the School of Business and later ratified by Senate, to phase out all the diploma programmes and remain with only degree programs. The decision was subsequently implemented, and the phasing out process was completed in the 1994 Academic Year.

At the same time the decision to phase out the Diploma programmes was being made, the School saw it necessary to develop a Bachelor degree curriculum in Production Management. The decision was influenced by the recognition of the importance of Production Management to economic activities in Zambia. The Degree in Production Management was launched in 1992. The School of Business currently offers three undergraduate degree programs. The 2002/2003 Academic year will see the launching of the fourth degree program - Bachelor of Science in Marketing.

Starting from 1989, preparations for the launching of the Master of Business Administration (MBA) degree began. The initial MBA curriculum was developed in 1989, and later approved by Senate. Owing to a number of constraints, the programme could not be launched immediately. In 1994, a commitment was made that the MBA programme should start in 1995. The programme was eventually started in may 1995