Where should i study my Financial Management degree in South Africa?

At a "traditional" university, such at UCT or Wits, you gain a Bachelor's Degree after graduating. If you study at a university of technology such as NMMUT or CPUT, you will get what they call a BTech degree (assuming that you studied for the appropriate length of time i.e 4 years, else you will get a Diploma which doesn't have as much weight in the career you're looking into).

Essentially, the main difference between a BTech and a bachelor's degree is the way that they teach the content and the depth to which they teach it. Also, if you are considering working overseas, a degree is very useful as a lot of people here (I'm from SA but now living in the UK) don't understand what a BTech is. They have different names for them over here, but everyone knows what a degree is.

Deciding where you should study and the resulting qualification you get dictates where you end up in the big bad world of careers. The route you want to take to get to your career aims. Either way, after graduating, you will have to start at the bottom and work your way up. But how far up you can go after you graduate depends on your qualifications.

For example, if you want to open your own business and need to know how to manage finances, BTech is fine. If, however, you want to get into banking and all the fancy corporate stuff by being hired by a big firm, then a degree is infinitely better as it will help you get in at a slightly higher level after you graduate. Traditionally, a degree has more recognition and credit with employers.

This isn't the case with all subjects, but when it comes to finance and economics as a major, my experience is that a degree is much more useful. If you were doing something more hands-on, such as engineering or design, for example, then a BTech is fine as it really does focus more on practical than it does theory. Again, this depends on what you are studying.

Also take the following into consideration if you're serious about making a career of Financial Management: Stellenbosch, UCT and WITS are known for their finance and business courses. Stellenbosch has one of the leading business schools in the southern hemisphere. How many universities of technology can boast the same?

While a lot of companies do hire BTech graduates for financial positions, remember that you will be competing with degree graduates as well.

My advice is that if you qualify to enter a traditional university, then go the degree route. You can't go wrong. If you decide that uni isn't for you and you want to change to university of technology, you will probably be able to. Although possible, it is a lot harder changing from a university of technology to a traditional university than it is the other way round.

Good luck with your studies!