As we enter year three of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), there is a transition in business schools from raising awareness around the Goals to really diving into the details. Signatories are not only creating a range of new programmes around the SDGs but are also rethinking existing offerings. I am thankful that so many Schools have chosen to share their experiences and examples here on PRiMEtime again this year.
The PRiMEtime website continues to be a database of good practices from around the world with over 1000 examples of how management education is embedding PRME into their work as well as their engagement in the SDGs. This includes examples from signatories, links to key resources, examples of leading sustainable businesses around the world as well as a range of Special Features providing in-depth looks at how schools are approaching specific SDGs.
As usual, to end off another great year, I have brought together a summary of all of the examples featured on PRiMEtime over the past year. This year they are organised into the following themes: cross cutting issues, skills for sustainability, student engagement, SDG action, resources around the goals and sustainable business examples and will be posted in 2 parts.
If you are an Advanced Signatory and have an example you would like to share, or you are interested in seeing a specific topic explored, please contact me gweybrecht@thesustainablemba.com.
Congratulations for all of your successes this!
SDG Action
This year started off with a series of posts highlighting the work of Signatories in the Australia/New Zealand Chapter, a Chapter that recently transitioned from an Emerging to an Established Chapter. The posts looked at the different ways schools in that region are engaging in the SDGs, including the work of two current PRME Champions, La Trobe Business School and Deakin University.
Lviv Business School in Ukraine showcased their Women’s Leadership Programme that aims to support the growing number of women who own small businesses in Ukraine as well as empowering new generations of female entrepreneurs.
In Malaysia, home to one of the largest urban refugee populations in the world, the School of Business at Monash University Malaysia has a programme that aims to assist and empower individual refugees through capacity building, funding and partnerships. This includes a programme that offers small grants to refugee community based organisations along with capacity building as well as CERTE, a bridge course to prepare students that are refugees to enter university.
Cross Cutting Issues.
Disability affects about 15% of the world’s population. To raise awareness about the International Day of Person’s with Disabilities we featured a series of posts highlighting how persons with disabilities are now included in the Sustainable Development Goals in a way they weren’t in the previous Millennium Development Goals. One post explored disability as a cross cutting issue, another presented resources on disability and business and another post looked at what Signatories are doing. We also featured the work of MOST, a student club at IBS-Moscow organising events to connect those with and without disabilities with the aim of increasing understanding and communication.
Many Signatories have send through information on new interdisciplinary programme offerings. The University of Pretoria in South Africa launched a new Master in Development Practice aimed at developing practioners in government, business and civil society that understand the complexity of development challenges and who have the leadership capacities to design and implement integrated and multidisciplinary projects around the SDGs. In Australia, Monash Business School has a new Master of Environment and Sustainability which is made up of core units developed through inter-faculty collaboration. In this post they also shared the challenges of creating a true interdisciplinary offering.
Skills for Sustainability
The SDGs are not only influencing new programmes but also a range of new unique courses within the business school curriculum. Cass Business School in the UK made a major investment in mentoring projects for students and staff including curriculum, teaching methodology and research. One of their projects pairs students up to be mentors with students in secondary school. At the University of South Australia students are learning mindfulness. Mindfulness not only helps develop more responsible and competent leaders, but to get better at that by paying attention to people in the here and now, to their positions and viewpoints, to their emotions and feeling.
At Chiang Mai University in Thailand student take part in integrated meditation as both part of the business curriculum as well as specific electives. They shared tips on how to meditate in the classroom as well as tips on how to teach meditation. At La Trobe Business School a mandatory, second year, cross-disciplinary module focuses on developing a sustainability disposition in students. The course goes beyond educating students about the issues and creating the impetus required for students to be change agents for sustainability to creating a ‘mindset’ change. We also heard from the University of South Australia where ethics class is being rethought and reoffered as a highly interactive course that is no longer textbook based.
PRiMEtime 