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Leveraging Antwerp’s international ecosystems

Antwerp Management School’s Dean, Steven De Haes, tells Tim Banerjee Dhoul how the School seeks to maximise the benefits of its location in the thriving business environment of a city that is home to one of the world’s largest ports

Antwerp, Belgium, is home to Europe’s second-largest port, a thriving logistics hub, and international companies which use the city as a springboard into the European market. It’s this singular environment that Antwerp Management School (AMS) looks to leverage in its programme offerings, says the School’s Dean, Steven De Haes, among which is one of Europe’s earliest executive MBAs. 

Topics covered by De Haes in this exclusive interview with Business Impact include the use of  neurotraining to hone leadership skills, AMS’s performance in a new impact-oriented form of Business School rankings and how being able to retain a truly international study experience could act as a potential differentiator, post-Covid-19. 

Why is management education important in your country? What is the value it brings to the community you serve?

Due to its open engagement in international trade and business, Belgium has always been at the forefront of global business developments, and especially Antwerp, through its international port activities. Many international companies continue to use Belgium as a springboard to the European market. 

Alongside this, management and business education in Belgium has an equally long tradition – the first management education at university level dates from 1852. With the battle for talent growing stronger every year, Business Schools like Antwerp Management School are providing companies and public authorities with the professional talent they need to manage their business activities in a competitive, innovative and sustainable way.

Antwerp Management School celebrated its 60th anniversary last year – its EMBA programme started in 1959 and is one of the pioneers in Europe. Through this, and many other programmes, we are serving the international business community and leveraging the unique international ecosystems in the greater Antwerp area. 

In addition, the School’s research and educational activities create awareness among our customers of recent management practices and provide participants with the knowledge and skills they need to make a difference. The School also assists and guides companies and organisations during processes of sustainable transformation and realising a positive impact on society.

How healthy is the current market for business education in your country?

The attractiveness and competitive value of business education in a country like Belgium is founded on several factors. Its location in the centre of western Europe offers an excellent setting to discuss European business practices. Brussels is home to a large number of international institutions, such as the European Union and NATO, but also a great number of international companies have Belgium as their European headquarters. Major business centres like London, Paris and Frankfurt can be reached easily in a few hours, so our School can offer business students direct access to major economic decision-making powers and invite key business leaders to contribute to our programmes on and off campus. 

Besides this environment, Belgium has always invested significantly in high-quality, accessible education. A city like Antwerp has the additional advantage of being a major European hub for transport and logistics, while offering a very good quality of living vs. cost of living. The current global situation [caused by the Covid-19 pandemic] puts a lot of pressure on international travel, but due to the factors described above, we are better armed than most to continue offering a truly international study experience. 

Can you tell me a bit about the type of people who study at your School and what those who have graduated from your School have gone on to do in the local region and beyond? 

Our School offers two types of graduate master’s programmes: full-time master’s degrees and executive master’s degrees. There are nine full-time master’s programmes run over one year of full-time study, with about 250 students. Their average age is 24, and they come from almost 50 different countries worldwide, with a very good gender balance. 

There are about 200 students on our four executive master’s programmes, which involve two years of part-time study. Participants are professionals from various sectors, public and private, who want to accelerate or diversify their careers, with an average age of about 37. 

In total, AMS now has more than 26,000 alumni in more than 100 countries. While a whole generation of top managers in Belgium have been educated at the School since the 1970s and 1980s, international expansion has been remarkable since the start of the 1990s and many of our alumni have gone on to develop significant careers in their home countries and abroad, in many different sectors.

What do you think makes your portfolio of programmes stand out from others that are available in the country headquarters of your School and the surrounding region?

In the first place, AMS has a strong focus on demonstrating its positive impact on society and the world. 

AMS is one of three European Business Schools that are ranked as ‘transforming Schools’ in the Positive Impact Rating (PIR), announced recently at the World Economic Forum in Davos. PIR is a new ranking that goes beyond ordinary rankings to measure societal impact. Today’s young and experienced professionals not only want to get the most out of their careers in the traditional sense, they also want to make a difference in society. They are therefore counting on their Business School to set a good example. PIR assesses seven dimensions of impact: governance and culture, programmes, learning methods, student engagement, the institution as a role model, and public engagement. In other words: walking the talk. 

AMS also has a unique opportunity to tap into some international ecosystems present in Antwerp. For example, the port of Antwerp is Europe’s second largest, and is the centre of an extensive transportation and logistics hub. This offers students in our supply chain management programme, as well as those studying our maritime and air transport management programme, the perfect environment to learn and see how the sector evolves, technologically, and from a business perspective.

About which single new programme or initiative are you most excited, and why?

The ‘Global Leadership Skills’ (GLS) programme – an intensive one-year trajectory that is now integrated in all full-time master’s programmes. The idea behind this interdisciplinary programme was to develop an integrated learning journey that would put the values of the School – global, critical, and sustainable mindsets – at the centre of AMS’s full-time master’s programmes, and to engage all students in concrete activities that support these values. 

One example of a GLS activity is teams of students setting up their own action-learning project, which is basically a community project that contributes to one of the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). 

In these multidisciplinary and international project teams, the students not only acquire important leadership skills but also contribute to raising awareness of the SDGs both inside and outside the School. In this way, we ensure that AMS alumni fully embrace a global, critical and sustainable mindset. 

Can you provide an example of how AMS is using online learning and/or new technology to meet the needs of its students?

When AMS moved to a new campus in 2018, this opportunity was used to invest heavily in virtual learning facilities. These allow faculty and staff to apply online teaching and blended learning capabilities across all programmes, and has made the School quite resilient in these challenging Covid-19 times. 

AMS also invests in technology-enabled innovations to explore new frontiers of knowledge. Last year, for example, a NeuroTraining LabTM was installed at Antwerp Management School under the guidance of Neuroscience and Strategic Leadership Professor, Steven Poelmans. 

Neurotraining is a method for the development of leadership competencies, by observing leadership behaviours in a controlled high-tech setting and measuring the associated neurocognitive activity. Its purpose is to increase EQ, performance and health in professionals by giving task-based neurofeedback. Participants confront emotionally challenging business situations by interacting with one another and a specifically trained actor. Our feedback allows them to observe, and to improve, their responses and behaviour, because we can link their biometric and electroencephalography (EEG) activity to underlying leadership competencies. So far, many enthusiastic responses were received from participants and companies.

How does AMS engage with businesses, government and other public sector organisations in your region? 

Managers and business practitioners, often alumni, contribute to the School’s programmes in many ways: guest lectures, meetings with students, company visits, members of project juries and so on. All these activities fit into AMS’s strategy of positioning itself as a trusted partner for organisations in transformation. 

In addition, Antwerp Management School has always cultivated strong collaborative links with local, regional and national public authorities. We have an excellent relationship with the city of Antwerp, but also with non-profit organisations, such as hospital networks and cultural institutions. 

What does ‘responsible management’ mean to your School and how is this concept introduced to, and instilled into, your students?

For more than 10 years, one of the key elements of AMS’s mission statement has been ‘societal consciousness’. This broad concept combines principles of ethical behaviour, sustainability, personal engagement, social equity and the responsibility of companies and organisations in society as a whole. Introducing these concepts to our students clearly goes beyond teaching and reflection. 

Students are actively involved in community projects, for example, and are encouraged to integrate these issues in their reports and projects. They are even asked to challenge their peers, faculty, companies and the School itself on these matters. Antwerp Management School is also a signatory to the UN’s Principles of Responsible Management Education (PRME) and one of the founding institutions of its Benelux-France chapter. The PRME are a very useful instrument in making students understand what responsible management is, and they are actively used in their study programmes. We ask students to voluntarily become ambassadors of these principles, and many embrace this role enthusiastically. 

What plans does your School have for the next three years and what developments would you like to see?

Since the current health crisis, this question has become a lot more difficult to answer. Before Covid-19, Antwerp Management School was on a journey of steady growth through a careful balancing of our programme portfolio. We were, and we are, developing innovative approaches to become a truly responsible and sustainable Business School with personal attention for each student, and a focus on developing the best leaders, not ‘of’ the world but ‘for’ the world. 

The changing circumstances that we are now facing only confirm the importance of the choices we have made and strengthen our determination to continue to pursue these goals. Realising them will require additional resilience and creativity, but we are convinced that the innovative spirit of the School will enable and accelerate this transformation and eventually strengthen our market position.

Steven De Haes, PhD, is Dean of Antwerp Management School (AMS) and Professor of Digital Strategy and Governance at AMS and the University of Antwerp, Belgium. 

This article is taken from Business Impact’s fifth edition in print.

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Moving beyond Covid-19: Adam Smith Business School, University of Glasgow, Scotland

How have Business Schools been working to move past the pandemic, both in the short and longer term? Kathleen Riach, Professor of Organisation Studies at Adam Smith Business School, offers her perspective

An initiative designed to help students at Adam Smith Business School, University of Glasgow transition to an online world of work has been rolled out to a wider audience of alumni and partners, says Professor of Organisation Studies, Kathleen Riach.

This is just one example of the School’s response to the challenges presented by Covid-19. In this interview, Riach also discusses the need – and opportunity – for the sector to learn lessons from the speed of response to the pandemic’s outbreak and outlines her belief that global and ‘inward’ strategies are not dichotomous ideas.

Business Impact’s fifth edition in print turned to the BGA network to canvas the collected thoughts of Business Schools based in India, Scotland, Puerto Rico, Poland, and the Netherlands to find out how they expect the pandemic to affect their outlook, strategy and offerings, both now and in the future. Given in June 2020, the below interview offers greater detail of Riach’s perspective on how the emerging situation and challenges had been approached at Adam Smith Business School to date.

The Covid-19 pandemic has, in many cases, led to a greatly increased uptake of online learning technology in business education. Although this has been a short-term necessity, does it present the sector with any opportunities in the longer term?

There is absolutely a need to think about this not as an erroneous year, but rather how we can build on some of the creative virtual teaching and learning practices that have sprung up all around our Business Schools.

Part of this is thinking about how we share what we are doing in lieu of the watercooler and corridor conversations we usually have with colleagues. It is also about ensuring that in the longer term we encourage the creation of ambidextrous learning assets that can enhance our students’ learning experiences in a number of settings, whether that is online, blended, or predominantly face to face.

I also think that it has made us more open to thinking about asynchronous and synchronous learning as not an either/or conundrum and that our curricula might want to be more flexible in this regard, which is a good thing given that more and more of our students are now balancing multiple roles as workers and carers as well as learners.

At the same time, I think there has been a renewed appreciation of what being physically present provides within an educational setting and that there is a qualitative aspect that is very difficult to replicate through other media. Moving forward, it provides us with an opportunity to think about how we use the valuable face-to-face time we have with learners to support and create a transformative learning experience.

Going beyond the pandemic’s immediate impact, have the year’s developments influenced your School’s strategy with regards to the use of online technology?

It’s really important not to underestimate the amount of upskilling and sheer number of hours of labour that has been put into this by faculty and professional staff, and that this effort is going to continue as we seek to create sustainable teaching and learning practices over the coming years. We need to consider this not simply as a matter of online technology, but also a matter of wellbeing and ensure we are promoting practical ways that all Business School staff do not carry the health hangovers of this period of intensive work into the future.

However, amid the exhaustion there has also been some excitement to see just how quickly at Glasgow – an institution that is more than 550 years old – we can change and adapt, which can sometimes be a challenge in any large organisation.

I also think it’s important that now the initial ‘rush’ of pivoting online has occurred, we have the opportunity to think a bit more strategically about not just online technology, but also how we can learn lessons from what was a very rapid response to a crisis. Strategically speaking, how might we be able to learn lessons surrounding quickly enabling and mobilising in ways that help us proactively address broader challenges in the business world and beyond?

The global financial crisis of 2008 has been linked to an increase in applications to Business Schools, as people decided the time was right to reassess their career goals and pursue personal and professional development. Do you think the Covid-19 pandemic could have a similar impact?

Any seismic global event is undoubtedly – and hopefully – going to make people reflect on what they do and why, and I think we will see an increased interest in people taking this time to recalibrate career goals. 

What changes do you anticipate to the number and profile of those applying to programmes at your Business School over the coming three years? Do you envisage greater interest in any individual programme(s) on offer?

Apart from having to navigate the logistical challenges that may face our international students, what we see is that students are very aware of how we are proactively responding to and engaging with current events, from sustainability to global inequality.

Business Schools are often encouraged to play a greater role in their local and regional communities. Has Covid-19 inspired any new events, activities or initiatives with this in mind?

Across the School we have seen our staff leverage their existing research expertise to provide thought leadership and new research projects that speak directly to some of the economic, work-related and social issues that circulate around Covid-19.

We have also decided to offer our DigiGallus initiative – an online programme developed to help students transition to an online world of work during lockdown – to alumni and key partners with the Business School. The traction we got from students in the School with DigiGallus has also provided the opportunity to develop an online mentoring scheme between our students and members of the local community who are shielding. We are hoping that this not only provides a service to local residents to navigate online living, but also gives students the opportunity to develop skills in leadership and intergenerational learning during the Summer break when many of their internships and workplaces are suspended or remain closed.

Leaving aside Covid-19, which single new programme, course, or initiative are you most excited about and why?

We just launched our MSc Financial Technology programme which is an interfaculty postgraduate degree with computing science, and law. Students from a variety of disciplines learn practical and conceptual skills, then have the opportunity for either a six-week industry placement or a startup pathway in an incubator developing an investment plan. It’s exciting to see the potential.

But beyond this, what we have seen in Covid-19 is a renewed thinking about how all our course provision is going to respond to the seismic changes we see in the world,  and teaching staff are taking this opportunity to think about how we make sure that the skills we develop and way we teach is relevant to the world we are now in.

This might sound a rather obvious point, but as academics we are also all voracious learners, and listening to the different types of conversations with colleagues about exploring and developing provision in our courses that will support and equip our students to face their future worlds of work is pretty invigorating.

Do you think Business Schools will need to focus more inwardly (and therefore less ‘globally’) than they have been in their teaching in order to address industry needs post-Covid-19? If so, could this have an impact on your School’s international exchange and partnership options?

There are certainly practical challenges and possibly uncomfortable conversations that have to take place surrounding what it means to be a global Business School. Covid-19 has perhaps accelerated and brought to the fore a lot of the concerns many already had about the ways and means we think about being international and paying attention to all of our key stakeholders. 

However, I don’t think global and inward strategies are dichotomous ideas. Rather, it is about thinking what our students and ourselves achieve from initiatives such as international exchanges and partnerships in their current form, and thinking creatively about how we can maintain and strengthen these aspects in a variety of ways, as well as considering how these competencies and benefits can be garnered through a more intimate engagement with, and contribution to, local economies.

For example, at a university level, our institution is currently thinking about civic engagement as a strategic priority and partnering with local and national government on very practical initiatives. One of the things that struck me when I came to University of Glasgow was that it certainly is ‘home to the world’ in many ways and that students who come here very quickly adopt the city. So, I think it’s more a case of developing these relationships further, rather than an ‘inward’ turn.

Do you anticipate Covid-19, and related issues, influencing course offerings within the programmes on offer from your School?

In many ways, Covid-19 has only further legitimised the direction we were already moving in terms of our provision. We have recently become advanced signatories of PRME and with COP26 being hosted in Glasgow, we already had the momentum of thinking about a different ecology of business education. At the same time, as a research-led School, provision is a ground-up process and courses are led by the expertise of faculty. I think it’s very important that we don’t simply begin introducing reactionary courses that speak directly to a theme per se, but rather think about what capabilities and skills students will need as a result of these global changes and how we can best foster these in our curricula.

There is an argument that the economic challenges that Covid-19 will bring represent a huge and much-needed opportunity for Business Schools to reinvent their value proposition for the better. What would you most like to see change in the business education industry?

We must acknowledge that this has been – and will continue to be – a devastating event for the world that has disproportionately affected certain parts of the population. But using it as a productive moment to think how we can do something is vital.

Business Schools collectively are a powerful force and thinking not only about our multiple accountabilities but also our potential to be incubators for change is so important, especially as we are at the beginning of the United Nations’ ‘Decade of Action’. In my role, one of the aspects we are going to focus on is how we ensure stewardship is central to the curriculum. If we really want to support our students becoming change agents in their future workplaces and the economy more broadly, then we need to ensure they don’t feel they are passive or mute agents in the current systems and ways of thinking. 

Kathleen Riach is Professor of Organisation Studies at Adam Smith Business School, University of Glasgow, Scotland, having previously held faculty and visiting positions in Australia, Sweden and Germany. She is the School’s inaugural lead of Responsible and Sustainable Management, with her own research focusing on organisational age and gender inequality.

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Post-Covid-19, learning will be augmented

The tools are there to augment learning, as part of Covid-19’s welcome reassessment of current teaching – the challenge is to find the best combination, says Audencia Business School’s Valérie Claude-Gaudillat

Advances in digital communications, neuroscience, AI, and data analysis, combined with changing business needs, new student sociology, and major societal and economic issues, have all contributed to a reassessment of the way we teach. This is a very good thing. 

In March this year, lockdown [restrictions implemented in many countries] further strengthened this trend when the switch from classroom teaching to distance learning became a necessity. It also accelerated the shift towards new augmented ways of teaching and learning. 

We are now looking at a much more adaptive approach to learning. Thanks to technology, the methods and pace of learning can not only adapt to students’ individual profiles, but also to their limitations, choices and desires. In this way, learning stops being quite so prescribed and is able to be more bespoke and, therefore, more human.

Adaptive learning

A legitimate criticism of traditional teaching is that it tends to remain quite generalised. Of course, this is not always the case, but overall it has remained targeted at the average level of a group of learners. The selection processes and the content of training programmes are geared towards this, despite the fact that there is always some heterogeneity within a given group.

Thanks to new digital solutions, however, it is already possible to adapt course content to students’ individual levels. This ‘adaptive learning’ is not new (the concept dates back to the 1970s) but digital tools are helping to make it a reality. Although it is still not very widespread in higher education, primary schools in North America and Asia are already using solutions, such as IBM Watson and Microsoft Power BI, often with very positive results. It is important to stress that these methods do not diminish the teacher’s role. On the contrary, we generally see greater commitment from students and stronger interactions between teachers and learners via those platforms. 

Risks of over-customising learning

‘Augmented learning’ is based on a more systemic and integrative approach that relies on a wide range of learning methods, tools and technologies. Alternating different teaching methods increases students’ motivation and has a positive impact on their learning. These can involve oral presentations, workshops, role playing, problem-based learning, debates, and case studies. 

However, there is a risk that over-customising learning can be detrimental in the medium to long term, particularly when the importance of the collective approach is minimised. Augmented learning must also include reinforcement of collective behavioural skills, and this can be achieved through peer-learning.

Augmented learning should balance the many aspects of learning – face-to-face and distance, technological and non-technological, individual and collective. The tools are now widely available, and the challenge is to combine them in a relevant fashion to best meet educational objectives.

Factoring in societal, ecological and psychological concerns

But beyond methods and technology, post-Covid-19 education must also tackle the major societal, economic and ecological issues we all face. The new world we have all been experiencing since March 2020 offers a real opportunity for a paradigm shift. All of our teaching and academic programmes must integrate societal and ecological dimensions. Indeed, they should be at the forefront in terms of content and across all courses. Since current students are the ones who will influence our future, they should be able to propose new learning methods and suggest new themes and formats. ‘Flipped classrooms’ are already widely implemented but we can go way further.

Finally, psychological implications must be better acknowledged. We cannot ignore the risks resulting from the lack of live interactions and social contact over the coming months and, possibly, years. This is a source of concern and anxiety for students, which must be countered with more empathy. At the same time, it is also our responsibility to prepare students for a world in which uncertainty is becoming the norm.

How will educators meet those challenges? The issues that we are facing are numerous and varied in this chaotic time and there is not a single winning formula. It is fundamental that educational developments are tailored to suit each course and each group of students while involving them in the process. It is not an easy task, but it is essential.

In the end, Covid-19 can also be thought of as a unique opportunity to fundamentally ‘augment’ learning, so that it becomes more relevant and can have an even bigger impact – not only on students, but also on businesses and society.

Valérie Claude-Gaudillat is a Professor and Director of the Institute for Innovation, Design and Entrepreneurship at Audencia Business School, France.

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Moving beyond Covid-19: Inter Metro, Puerto Rico

Inter Metro’s Antonio Fernós Sagebién looks at how the Puerto Rican institution’s offerings and plans for the immediate future have been affected by the pandemic

How will Covid-19 affect Business Schools’ outlook, strategy and offerings, both now and in the future? Business Impact’s fifth edition in print turned to the BGA network to canvas the collected thoughts of Business Schools based in India, Scotland, Puerto Rico, Poland, and the Netherlands to find out.

In this third part of our serialisation online, Antonio Fernós Sagebién – Associate Professor at the Inter-American University of Puerto Rico, Metropolitan Campus (Inter Metro) – shares his views on the awaited ‘new normal’, changes to programme structures, and financial challenges for part-time students that work full time. Please note that this interview was given in May/June 2020.

The Covid-19 pandemic has, in many cases, led to a greatly increased uptake of online learning technology in business education. Although this has been a short-term necessity, does it present the sector with any opportunities in the longer term?

Yes, my university has a long-standing [history] of 100% online programmes (mostly courses that are 75% asynchronous) but now we have had to move [programmes with] 100% presence to hybrid (courses that are 100% online but that are at least 25% synchronous) courses.

As such, 100% of our faculty is now certified by [edtech company] Blackboard and, in our 100% online courses offer, existing courses are being refreshed with new material and modules and new courses are being created.

Going beyond the pandemic’s immediate impact, have the year’s developments influenced your School’s strategy with regards to the use of online technology?

Yes, faculty and students are now required to use online library resources (for both databases and periodicals/journals).

What will be the core challenges for the business education sector in recruiting new students (at both undergraduate and postgraduate level) over the coming three years?  

Our students and my institution take pride in our very low teacher-to-student ratio, along with having personalised class scheduling processes. We now will have less degrees of freedom on our courses scheduling offer.

As most of our MBA students are employed full time, if any specific industry or sector gets affected or labour force is displaced, these students will have no source of funding.

Leaving aside Covid-19, which single new programme, course, or initiative are you most excited about and why? 

New concentration in business analysis and a new master’s degree (non-MBA) specialised in banking administration.

Do you think Business Schools will need to focus more inwardly (and therefore less ‘globally’) than they have been in their teaching in order to address industry needs post-Covid-19? If so, could this have an impact on your School’s international exchange and partnership options?

Yes, indeed. As part of the US, our borders/immigration policies are the same as those of the US. It is always a challenge to get approval on visas for international students in Puerto Rico.

Do you anticipate Covid-19, and related issues, influencing course offerings within the programmes on offer from your School? (E.g. new modules, or new approaches within existing modules)

Yes, financial hardship from new and existing students will force us to create new delivery channels that are not yet validated. Exploring is a part of innovation and students, faculty and administrators are looking for a return to a ‘new normal’ that we have yet to know. Quite possibly, MBA courses will be [start to be] offered in a bimonthly cycle modules.

However, our position is that until we meet this ‘new normal’, we make no sudden moves.

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Moving beyond Covid-19: Rotterdam School of Management (RSM)

RSM Dean, Ansgar Richter, on how Covid-19 has accelerated the School’s plans to make technology more prominent in its thinking and why Business Schools must avoid turning inwards

How will Covid-19 affect Business Schools’ outlook, strategy and offerings, both now and in the future? Business Impact’s fifth edition in print turned to the BGA network to canvas the collected thoughts of Business Schools based in India, Scotland, Puerto Rico, Poland, and the Netherlands to find out.

In this second part of our serialisation online, Ansgar Richter – Dean of Rotterdam School of Management, Erasmus University (RSM) – discusses how the School’s online strategy has evolved, how the crisis has given increased importance its sense of citizenship, and the dangers of ‘turning inwards’.

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The Covid-19 pandemic has, in many cases, led to a greatly increased uptake of online learning technology in business education. Although this has been a short-term necessity, does it present the sector with any opportunities in the longer term?

Most certainly. We have learned a lot over the past months. The turnaround has been quick and effective, and teachers overall are positive. In a post-Covid-19 area, RSM will indeed move to a blended learning approach, and also fully online programmes – but only in those areas where we have unique strengths over what others offer.

Going beyond the pandemic’s immediate impact, have the year’s developments influenced your School’s strategy with regards to the use of online technology?

In the sense that the evolution has been quicker than expected, yes – but the developments were taking place already. For example, we had already established a learning innovation team a number of years ago, and Erasmus University – of which RSM is an integral part – set up an education lab (which includes a television-grade studio). These investments are now paying off, and we plan to accelerate them going forwards. Technology will feature much more strongly in our strategy.

The global financial crisis of 2008 has been linked to an increase in applications to Business School, as people decided the time was right to reassess their career goals and pursue personal and professional development. Do you think the Covid-19 pandemic could have a similar impact?

We definitely saw an increase in applications for our pre-experience programmes for the current academic year, in particular for our MSc programmes. For the post-experience programmes, it is too soon to tell – they will only start next January, but we have no indications of declining demand so far; on the contrary!

I think there are a number of things at play here – students’ desire to reassess their career goals being one of them.

What changes do you anticipate to the number and profile of those applying to programmes at your Business School over the coming three years? Do you envisage greater interest in any individual programme(s) on offer?

One of our flagship programmes is the MSc in global business and sustainability. This programme has already been hugely successful, and we are now seeing demand for this programme growing further. Our MSc in business analytics is also set for further growth.

What will be the core challenges for the business education sector in recruiting new students (at both undergraduate and postgraduate level) over the coming three years?

There is no doubt that international student recruitment has become much more competitive in recent years, at least until the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic. One challenge that all of us in the sector are facing is how to navigate the rapidly changing political landscape – factors such as visa and right-to-work policies come into play here, but also the rise of authoritarian or nationalistic governments in several countries that show no respect for the values that academic institutions around the world stand for: open exchange, freedom of thought and freedom of expression, equality, and the dignity of every human being regardless of factors such as colour, gender, creed or sexual orientation. I believe students will choose their place of study on the basis of these factors, too.

Another challenge that a lot of Business Schools will have to grapple with relates to pricing. In many universities in the UK, the US and Australia, Business Schools are often the cash cows of the universities, whose income is used to cross-subsidise other programmes. Effectively, these institutions have made the study of business administration too expensive, raising concerns about whether Business Schools contribute to inequality. I believe there needs to be a recalibration.

Business Schools are often encouraged to play a greater role in their local and regional communities. Has Covid-19 inspired any new events, activities or initiatives with this in mind?

We offer free webinars on a regular basis which are very well attended. During the crisis, we have also undergone a Business School Impact System (BSIS) assessment exercise, which has demonstrated the impact that RSM has had and continues to have in our region, the Rotterdam and greater Randstad area. This initiative was in the making before the pandemic, but the crisis has raised the importance of our citizenship in this area.

Leaving aside Covid-19, which single new programme, course, or initiative are you most excited about and why?

In the undergraduate programmes, we are rolling out an initiative called ‘Boost the Bachelor’, which will vastly increase flexibility, provide students with greater choice, and transform the student experience. We are also developing new interdisciplinary programmes with other schools within Erasmus University – for example with our medical school (Erasmus Medical Centre) – and with other institutions, such as the Technical University of Delft.

Do you think Business Schools will need to focus more inwardly (and therefore less ‘globally’) than they have been in their teaching in order to address industry needs post-Covid-19? If so, could this have an impact on your School’s international exchange and partnership options?

‘Turning inwards’ is a danger that we absolutely need to avoid. Some partner institutions are unable to accept international exchange students at this particular time, so the value of having a large network of partner schools to choose from becomes even more apparent. What has become more problematic are highly rigid programme structures, where you rely on one particular partner, or where a residency can only take place within a narrowly defined time window. So, you need greater flexibility, but not to turn away from the idea of international exchange.

Do you anticipate Covid-19, and related issues, influencing course offerings within the programmes on offer from your School?

Yes, we will have a more blended approach. Whether content will change remains to be seen – we have adopted our teaching in line with our mission to be a force for positive change in the world and this is a broad response to current global issues in any case.

There is already an argument that the economic challenges that Covid-19 will bring represent a huge and much-needed opportunity for Business Schools to reinvent their value proposition for the better. What would you most like to see change in the business education industry?

A large proportion of the jobs that will be done in 2030 haven’t been invented yet. Similarly, the meaning of ‘management’ will be totally different in the future, from what it is today. Tomorrow’s managers will need to be incredibly comfortable with constant change. We will need to prepare them for that. The Covid-19 crisis is providing much-needed focus on what’s really important in business education. We educate our students not only for the purpose of making lots of money, but also to enable them to be a force for positive change in society at large.

Ansgar Richter is Dean of Rotterdam School of Management, Erasmus University (RSM). Before joining RSM, he served as Dean of Surrey Business School in the UK.

Portions of this interview feature in ‘Moving management education past Covid-19’ – the cover story in the fifth edition of Business Impact’s print magazine.

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Moving beyond Covid-19: Collegium Humanum

How has the management education landscape been affected by Covid-19, and how are Business Schools working to move past the pandemic, both in the short and longer term? Insights from Collegium Humanum-Warsaw Management University, Poland

In spite of the shattering human cost and the innumerable challenges presented by Covid-19, the management education sector has made positive moves over the past six months which promise not only to facilitate management education’s recovery from the pandemic, but also to aid its progression in the face of evolving technologies and student demands in the third decade of the 21st century.

Business Impact’s fifth edition in print turned to the BGA network to canvas the collected thoughts of Business Schools based in India, Scotland, Puerto Rico, Poland, and the Netherlands to find out how they expect the pandemic to affect their outlook, strategy and offerings, both now and in the future. Here, we look in more detail at the thoughts of Paweł Czarnecki, Provost at Collegium Humanum-Warsaw Management University in Poland.

The Covid-19 pandemic has, in many cases, led to a greatly increased uptake of online learning technology in business education. Although this has been a short-term necessity, does it present the sector with any opportunities in the longer term?

When it comes to the strategy of educational activities in the area of business here at Collegium Humanum, we never planned online education because our education philosophy rests largely on the values associated with the creation of networking opportunities and personal relationships among students. In the long run, this translates into their further professional success.

The pandemic situation has, however, forced us to move to the online education sector. From research and observations among our students, we have noticed considerable interest in this form of education and an increased commitment to acquiring knowledge. I am therefore convinced that online education will in no time significantly support traditional forms of education. Yet, one must still admit that online education cannot and will never replace direct contact and meetings with people.

Going beyond the pandemic’s immediate impact, have the year’s developments influenced your School’s strategy with regards to the use of online technology?

We do not know what the situation will be in the coming months. I do hope that the pandemic will be only a memory. We have, however, drawn positive conclusions from this difficult experience, and yes, we will support traditional education with online education technologies. We will also expand our virtual university systems.

The global financial crisis of 2008 has been linked to an increase in applications to Business School, as people decided the time was right to reassess their career goals and pursue personal and professional development. Do you think the Covid-19 pandemic could have a similar impact?

During the Covid-19 pandemic, we have recorded increased recruitment levels for MBA, DBA and LLM studies. Perhaps this was due to the lockdown [restrictions] necessitated by the sanitary regime which left our candidates with more time to spare for education. This trend still continues.

What changes do you anticipate to the number and profile of those applying to programmes at your Business School over the coming three years? Do you envisage greater interest in any individual programme(s) on offer?

We strive to adapt our educational offer to the individual needs of various candidates for business studies. Individual organisation of studies, tutoring as well as mentoring activities are all standard services available to students at our university. We assume that, over the next three years, the number of students on MBA and DBA courses will increase.

What will be the core challenges for the business education sector in recruiting new students (at both undergraduate and postgraduate level) over the coming three years?

The main challenge will be to create an educational offer that will meet the current and potential needs of the labour market. Hence, our study programmes are formed in constant consultation with our social and economic environment as well as its stakeholders. We work to the understanding that our study programmes should educate and equip our graduates with practical preparation for professional roles. The challenge is therefore to provide practical education that is implemented by a truly experienced cohort of practitioners and experts.

Business Schools are often encouraged to play a greater role in their local and regional communities. Has Covid-19 inspired any new events, activities or initiatives with this in mind?

During the pandemic, our university implemented a legal aid project and developed a textbook related to the changes in legal regulations in view of the enforced sanitary regime and other restrictions as well as changes brought upon us by the broader epidemic regulations.

We published this on our social media and on our website. A professor of our university has also been giving daily advice, in Polish and English, on matters related to Covid-19 and the pandemic with the largest television broadcaster in Poland (TVP).

Leaving aside Covid-19, which single new programme, course, or initiative are you most excited about and why?

We have launched a completely online MBA programme, which proved, and is still, very popular.

Do you think Business Schools will need to focus more inwardly (and therefore less ‘globally’) than they have been in their teaching in order to address industry needs post-Covid-19? If so, could this have an impact on your School’s international exchange and partnership options?

As long as there is an epidemic threat and related sanitary regime in place, there will be inevitable restrictions related to the mobility of students and the teaching staff.

In the long run, however, one cannot run successful business education programmes without exchanging experiences or involving external partnerships. Partners not only bring additional educational quality to the study programmes, but they also influence the prestige of the studies.

Do you anticipate Covid-19, and related issues, influencing course offerings within the programmes on offer from your School?

It seems viable that study programmes might have to be integrated with courses that will deal with various competencies that relate specifically to crisis management, especially when it comes to health emergency situations. We will integrate such modules with programmes of all types of studies.

There is already an argument that the economic challenges that Covid-19 will bring represent a huge and much-needed opportunity for Business Schools to reinvent their value proposition for the better. What would you most like to see change in the business education industry?

In the business education industry, it is particularly crucial to educate in the field of practical functioning of businesses according to the latest knowledge and market trends. This requires constant tracking of the market trends and consulting the study programmes with different business practitioners so that to adapt them to the current needs.

Paweł Czarnecki is Provost at Collegium Humanum-Warsaw Management University, Poland. A Professor of Social Sciences, he is also Member of the Marketing Committee at the Polish Olympic Committee, Professor at the Technical University of Košice (Faculty of Aviation) in Slovakia, and Member of the Supervisory Boards in Wroclaw Technology Park and Business Solutions in Warsaw.

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Integrating sustainability into business education: part II

The second part of Business Impact‘s synopsis of a panel event, co-hosted by BGA earlier this year, on how sustainability can be better integrated into the DNA of higher education. By Daniel Kirkland and Ellen Buchan

Following the topics covered in the first part of this account (which you can read here) the panel proceeded to discuss the limits of desirability and possibility, in terms of embedding sustainability effectively across a range of courses and where its focus might lie as a business concern over the next three to four years. 

SDA Bocconi’s Pogutz explained that there are two possible paths that could be taken to embed sustainability in organisations. One is to appoint a technical professional – the chief sustainability officer – and the other is developing leaders with sustainability mindsets through MBA programmes. 

‘The big challenge is that organisational structures are still not metabolising that, so they go back and ask for a very vertical style of competence. So the integration would be mandatory, but not for becoming a sustainability manager. That’s even more complex as a challenge, at least for us in Italy,’ Pogutz said. 

St.Gallen’s Walls added: ‘I would push that concept even further. At Business Schools we have a responsibility and an obligation to teach students not only about sustainability, but also about values-based management in general. 

‘How we’re going to implement that is going to be a different question, but I feel that we’ve done a disservice to our students; we’ve created this kind of MBA person that goes out and focuses on certain things when they go out into the business and, as a result, we’re now facing some global challenges, like climate change, social unrest, and all kinds of biodiversity loss. 

‘Business are not able to cope with these challenges right now. I think we need to take a deep and critical look at ourselves as Business Schools and ask what is it that we should be providing to students. [Sustainability] has to be the oil for everything, it can’t just be one cog. Otherwise we won’t solve the problem.’ 

Understanding ourselves as Business Schools

Zollo responded to this challenge, adding: ‘The entire challenge can be framed in terms of understanding ourselves as Business Schools. We’re having the same type of challenge that we’re asking businesses to face. 

‘They have to rethink their purpose, in terms of creating value for stakeholders and giving up on the idea of privacy to monetise stakeholders and shareholders. We also have to rethink. 

‘First of all, content-wise, there is no logic in adding one more course, or one more module. There is no question about that once we have decided that we want to be part of the solution – to contribute and shift the world towards a sustainable society. 

‘Then the question is [how to go about] redesigning all the programmes, including the MBA, starting from those assumptions – i.e. this is the theory of the firm that we’re going to teach, and every single course, whether it’s finance, marketing, strategy, organisation, is going to be taught on the basis of that theory of the firm, which says “your role as managers is to create that value for stakeholders, period”. There is no choice anymore.’

Taticchi responded by outlining his own belief that it is impossible to teach different modules without integrating sustainability within them.  

‘I think it’s very important to create the right narrative,’ he said. ‘Sustainability should not be a separate module, otherwise it is perceived as something different from “real” business. 

‘Sustainability is about smart business; it’s about exploring opportunities; and it’s about exploring management risks. I think it’s important that students realise this at the beginning of their business education so that when they study strategy or operations they have the right mindset for that.’

The purpose of the MBA

Crane outlined a pressing challenge: the way Business Schools market an MBA is often on salary uplift and the Financial Times ranks programmes based on this criteria, so a rethink into how Business School programmes are marketed and evaluated is needed. 

‘We need to transform the way that we think about the purpose of an MBA programme before that happens,’ he said. ‘That will only happen if the whole ranking changes, if the way we market programmes changes, and if the business model of Business Schools changes.’  

Crane went on to describe a ‘sense of isolation’ in Business Schools, and the difficulty in encouraging business students to go outside a Business School and talk to people in other fields, such as environmental science, sociology, and developmental studies. 

‘They don’t want to know,’ he said. ‘They want to talk about finance, they want to talk about marketing in the safe cocoon of the Business School because they are there to get an increase in their salary. The challenge we have is breaking out of our own silo. 

‘We have a structural problem; we are pulling up the drawbridge not putting it down. You need to create an open institution. As Business Schools have emerged, they aren’t the model that we need in order to tackle the problems that we want to solve.’

The role of accreditation bodies

With that in mind, do accreditation organisations also have a role in pushing for more of a focus on sustainability? 

‘If you want Schools to focus on things such as stakeholder capitalism or the climate emergency, you can ask them to do so, but ultimately you have to require them to do it, to get the kind of change necessary,’ said Crane.  

‘That’s where accreditation comes in,’ he added. BGA and others are starting to push quite strongly at this and it is a requirement to some extent for accreditation that’s getting stronger all the time, but [in terms of transformation], I don’t think we are there yet in the accreditation system.’  

Robert outlined her views that it’s useful for Business Schools to have rules to follow that help them know what to do: ‘Not all Business Schools are accredited but the top ones are. Accreditation has a really huge impact because Business Schools which aren’t accredited follow the ones that are – and the students know this as well. We want to have the accreditation bodies take sustainability into consideration more and more. The accreditation has to take this big chance in order to make a difference.’  

Walls agreed with this sentiment: ‘You need the student body to push and you need the accreditation bodies to pull. I think that something which is even more crucial is how Business Schools stay relevant. Not only relevant to business and the global challenges we face but also relevant to new students coming in and for future students who are now high schoolers and will be entering university questioning why they would they go to a Business School if there is nothing there about sustainability or ethics. 

‘It’s about Business Schools looking at their long-term survival strategy, in the same way that businesses do. The external environment is changing, we can see that. Business Schools need to respond if they want to be there.’

Taticchi was keen to reiterate what the role of an accreditation body is: ‘It’s not just about setting requirements and making sure that Business Schools meet those requirements.

‘It’s also about creating a best practice and helping Schools improve on what they do. There is an advisory board with accreditation bodies which is extremely important. That’s why sustainability should be part of the conversation for accreditation bodies.’  

Iliev closed this part of the debate by adding: ‘Accreditation is a consultancy process. We have created an inventory of the key terms that need to be implemented across all the programmes, including sustainability terms. An accreditation, such as BGA, can provide the template for Schools that don’t have the expertise in sustainability.’ 

The role of Business School rankings

Having discussed the role of accreditation in taking the sustainability agenda forward, the panel moved on to discuss ratings and rankings – which they were challenged to consider in terms of a help or hindrance to Business Schools when recruiting students. 

‘I think that there is a difference between ratings and rankings’ said Robert. ‘We talk a lot about rankings and not so much about ratings,’ she continued. ‘For the rankings, obviously it’s a major thing for Business Schools. Everyone wants to be ranked number one but that is only one place, so they at least want to be well ranked.  That’s what Schools use to make sure that students are going to pick them, and that the activities in the Business School will fit what they need to move up the rankings ladder, which is an incentive. But we feel, as students, it is also good to have another tool which can be used, because once you are ‘ranked’ you either celebrate or you are disappointed. The ratings system has another purpose because you can do something about it.’ She explained that this was why oikos International launched a positive impact rating, which is about evaluating and assessing the positive impact Business Schools have on society and students. 

Robert said: ‘In the positive impact rating we have different dimensions, like educating and engaging as well as governance, culture, programmes, learning methods, student engagement, the institution as a role model, and public engagement. Students are enabled to rate their Schools in terms of positive impact and, from there, the Schools have the data to know what the students think of their institution’s positive impact.

‘The goal is to encourage stakeholder engagement and everyone to work together to bring the Schools to another level, in terms of positive impact. There were no Business Schools in this first edition [of the rating] that reached the top level in terms of learning methods, in terms of institutions as role models, and in terms of engagement. 

‘We believe in Business Schools and we want them to move on and have positive impact. I think it’s important that the rankings take into consideration the positive impact of Business Schools, because in some ways this is where we need to go and in this sector we are trying to move ratings and rankings in that direction.’

Other panellists were keen to discuss rankings and what could be improved in their methodologies to support sustainability.

Crane was pulling no punches. ‘I think rankings like that of the Financial Times have had the most negative, pernicious influence on the greater development of Business Schools as you can imagine, in terms of dealing with this issue,’ he said. ‘It focuses on all the wrong things. I would say that in terms of getting Schools to focus on sustainability, responsible business and positive impact, its finally got a bit of sustainability in it, like 2%. But the whole salary uplift thing overwhelms this so that the overall effect is minimal.’  

But he added that the biggest problem with rankings are how Business Schools respond to them: ‘Schools are very good at managing the rankings,’ he said. ‘The trouble is that rankings are [often] based on students’ responses. The way that Schools react to that is to try and influence the student responses, not influence what they do in their Business School. 

‘So rather than focusing on their educational responsibilities, they will be much better at promoting what they are doing to the student body and they will be much better at connecting with their alumni and telling lots of positive stories and getting them to say lots of positive things about them.

‘For a relatively small School, the idea that you could be the top of a sustainability ranking is like gold dust. Your dean will listen to you if you can say we can get you from number 20, to number one if you do X, Y and Z. You might never get to the top of the Financial Times ranking, but you can become number one in another ranking.’

Imperial’s Zollo agreed, stating: ‘I think it might be the time to really think about perspectives in creating the rankings. So far rankings have taken the perspective of the student: what do they want? 

‘It’s about time that we took the perspective of “what kind of MBA does society need?” and “what kind of MBA elements do we need to forge?”

‘That should be the overarching criteria to create the various metrics on which Business Schools have to compete.’  

St.Gallen’s Walls put forward her fear that Schools might, in fact, dismiss ‘smaller’ rankings because they will be perceived as ‘less important’ in time-pressured and political university environments.  

‘This is why it would be great if the larger rankings bodies focused on sustainability, because not everyone pays attention to specialist rankings,’ Walls said.   

Stakeholder relations

Building on this, Pogutz explained that one point missing in the sustainability agenda is the relationships that Business Schools have with their various stakeholder groups when it comes to prioritising their competencies. 

‘Climate change is urgent,’ Pogutz said, ‘and we may not have time to repeal the effect of it. It will take a lot more time [than the nine to 10 years we have]’ before pointing out that sustainability is multidisciplinary. 

‘How many of us have ever heard of anyone from natural sciences speaking about climate change? If you take all of the social dimensions of it [into consideration], such as human rights – who are the experts in human rights in Business Schools and how can we build pathways in Business Schools in this type of topic? 

‘We have pressure because the agenda is there and we have a long way to go. There is a huge cultural transformation.’  

Inspiring cultural change

As the debate drew to a close, the panellists agreed that while issues around rankings and course design were looming hurdles in developing a sustainability agenda across Business Schools, accreditations and research – such as those offered by BGA – would support Schools in embedding sustainability in business education. 

The biggest challenge identified, however, was implementing a shift in the culture and internal politics of Business Schools and the wider universities of which they are a part – and measuring the impact they are having in terms of this culture shift, and the wider sustainability and climate change emergency. 

The panel agreed that the first step would be collaborating to prioritise this pressing issue and communicate it to students, employers, and external and internal stakeholders before it’s too late. 

Held in partnership between AMBA & BGA and Imperial College Business School, ‘Integrating sustainability into business education’ took place at the London institution’s campus in February 2020. 

The panel for the event consisted of: Andrew Crane, Director of the Centre for Business, Organisations and Society, University of Bath; Clémentine Robert, President, Oikos International; George Iliev, Director of Strategic Projects and Innovation; Accreditation and China Director, AMBA & BGA; Judith Walls, Chair for Sustainability Management, University of St.Gallen; Maurizio Zollo, Head of the Department of Management, Imperial College Business School; Paolo Taticchi, Director of the Weekend MBA and Global Online MBA, Imperial College Business School; Stefano Pogutz, Tenured Faculty of Management, Department of Management and Technology, SDA Bocconi. The panel moderator was Andrew Jack, Global Education Editor, Financial Times.

This article was originally published in Business Impact magazine, issue #4 (June 2020).

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Integrating sustainability into business education: part I

Earlier this year, BGA brought together a panel of Business School leaders to debate how sustainability could be integrated into the DNA of higher education effectively, to prepare business and society to address the challenge. Daniel Kirkland and Ellen Buchan report

Sustainability is one of the key issues facing society today, and garners increasing attention from governments, the media, academics and industry.

In response, BGA partnered with Imperial College Business School earlier this year to host an event focused on integrating sustainability into business education, which included a lively panel discussion among sustainability experts who delved into various aspects of the sustainability agenda, including the economic, the environmental and social perspectives. Business Impact attended the session and picked out some highlights and key takeaways from the debate.

Andrew Jack, Global Education Editor at the Financial Times (FT) kicked off the discussion in his role as moderator: ‘The Financial Times does deep coverage on business and business education, and we do a number of rankings’, he said. ‘But the FT itself has a new agenda which is about balancing profits with people, planet and purpose, so this area of sustainability, corporate responsibility and social impact is something that’s deeply important to us and is part of the reflection that we’re undertaking around the review of our rankings.’

He added: ‘I think a lot of people in this room share an understanding of the importance of sustainability, but of course given the historical culture of business, I wouldn’t say that the driving force behind the demand [for sustainability] has come from employers, or the majority of students, necessarily,’ before asking participants what the level of demand coming from employers and students really is for Schools to take sustainability more seriously and to integrate it into their teaching.  

Demand for sustainability

Paolo Taticchi, Director of the Weekend MBA and Global Online MBA at Imperial College Business School, took forward the conversation around the demand for sustainability: ‘In terms of the percentage of students demonstrating an interest for sustainability, I’ve seen this growing in the past six years,‘ he said.  

‘If you look at the number of electives that we offer in the sustainability space, all of them are doing well. We recently launched a module called ‘the future of cities’ where we look at the future of sustainability. Immediately we see there is demand for that. 

‘We are also seeing a growing number of students becoming interested in activities relating to sustainability, including workshops, conferences, and networking events which are organised by our students around investing in responsible business, diversity, or inclusive business.’

Judith Walls, Chair for Sustainability Management at the University of St.Gallen, added: ‘We have seen a strong student interest [in sustainability] for more than 30 years. If I look at master’s programmes, there is very high interest and demand in sustainability and people self-select into certain courses but I had the experience, recently, at the MBA level where we were offering a course and there wasn’t enough interest in sustainability. We didn’t have enough MBA students signing up and we cancelled the course. We’re now reviewing how we sell sustainability to MBA students. ‘At the university itself we have more than 10 student groups that are dedicated to
social and environmental sustainability,‘ Walls added. ‘So there are a lot of bottom-up initiatives from the students themselves.’

Clémentine Robert, President of oikos International, a student organisation that seeks to strengthen sustainability-oriented entrepreneurship, said that there was a higher demand every year for sustainability from students.

But she moved to address the apparent lack of interest in sustainability from the employer perspective, saying: ‘Basically, sustainability – at its core – is not necessarily there. It’s not what [employers] look for when recruiting a student for an internship or job. They want an ethical mindset and that is central to the recruitment process. Previously employers were not really looking for that in the recruitment process, so I would say that this has evolved. But there is still a lot to do, so we’ll keep working.’

The international business education arena

Maurizio Zollo, Head of Imperial College Business School’s Department of Management and Entrepreneurship has previously held roles at SDA Bocconi in Milan previously, and as a Visiting Professor at MIT in Boston, so he was keen to discuss the different approaches to sustainability between Italy, the UK and the US. 

‘In the European context there is a lot of growth and there is a lot more ease in both promoting and integrating sustainability content in programmes,’ he said. ‘The employer side, is still slowly progressing. 

‘Progress on the other side of the pond – in the US – is mixed. Some Schools seem to be able to find the appropriate way of doing this. It is typically Schools that are small, Yale [School of Management] for instance, that are able to rethink and redefine the whole MBA, starting from simple assumptions [based on] stakeholder organisation. We only have one planet, not two and a half. You know, that type of obvious assumption for those of us that are converted [to championing sustainability].’

Critical mass

Stefano Pogutz, Tenured Faculty of Management at SDA Bocconi said he was seeing ‘critical mass’ in terms of students seeking sustainability courses: ‘I see a lot of movement and attention at the undergraduate and the post-graduate level. The numbers are growing to the point that we are in trouble because now there are too many people and this type of active education cannot extend to 120 people in a class. 

‘The MBA has been a bit more resistant, so at Bocconi we’ve slightly changed the first year of the programme… Let’s see how it will be at the end of this year. I have mixed feelings right now. I think [the MBA programme is] where you have a little more resistance; it’s a common theme.’ Pogutz’s comments were followed by those of Andrew Crane, Director of the Centre for Business, Organisation and Society at the University of Bath who agreed that there had been a definite increase in sustainability on Business School programmes during his career: ‘We’ve got more students interested, we’ve got more faculty interested, and we’ve got more courses on sustainability, which is the good news story,’ he said. ‘The bad news story is it can only go so far. I don’t think there is a level of student interest or demand to really pull it deep into the curriculum. I’ve worked for the past 20 years in at least three of the top Schools for integrating sustainability into the core of the curriculum. If you want the percentage of students that are actually demanding more sustainability content, it is 1%. I get an MBA programme of 100 students. Within that, you’ve got one or two students who are the activists. 

‘And those are the programmes that are already doing pretty well. They’ve already got a core course dealing with sustainability, and an elective on sustainability. The challenge is getting students to think that they need more. They’re saying, “we already did sustainability, what else do I need to know?” 

‘So the challenge is, if we want greater student demand, how do we get students to ask for more than we’re currently giving?’

International examples 

George Iliev, Director of Strategic Projects and Innovation; Accreditation and China Director at AMBA & BGA, explained that, at the time of the event, BGA accredits five Schools globally and that, as part of this recently launched accreditation process, each institution’s sustainability credentials are examined. 

He explained: ‘One [BGA-accredited] School is in China and the programme that integrates sustainability the most in its curriculum is a joint management and engineering undergraduate programme. ‘I’ve never seen employers speaking so positively about the graduates of this programme. Granted, it is probably not the sustainability that is driving this, it’s the mix of engineering, management and electronics at the university.’ Iliev went on to discuss a School in Finland, which has been running a master’s in corporate environmental management since the 1990s, remarking that its students are very successful in finding jobs. 

This article was originally published in Business Impact magazine, issue #4 (June 2020)