When Students Rate the Positive Impact of Business Schools… The Positive Impact Rating First Edition 2020 www.PositiveImpactRating.org | @RatingImpact | #RatingImpact Table of content: Executive Summary Page 2 Section 1 – Transforming the Business School Landscape Page 5 Section 2 – Best Practice Example of Leading Schools Page 16 Section 3 – Frequently Asked Questions Page 21 Section 4 – Who is Behind the Positive Impact Rating Page 26 Impressum www.PositiveImpactRating.org/PIR2020 Lead authors: Katrin Muff and Thomas Dyllick Contributing authors and editors (in alphabetical order): Julia Christensen Hughes, Mathias Falkenstein, Carlo Giardinetti, Leo Gilliard, Urs Jäger, Ruth Mhlanga, Lianna Mora, Anders Sandoff, Meredith Storey Press & communications contact: Katrin Muff, President of the Positive Impact Rating Association. Email: [email protected]; @KatrinMuff; Skype: Katrin.Muff | Phone: +41 79 310 0392 © Positive Impact Rating Association, Lucerne, Switzerland – January 2020 First Edition Jan 2020 www.PositiveImpactRating.org/PIR2020 1 Executive Summary The Positive Impact Rating (PIR) is a new rating What students want! conducted by students and for students. It is the Students provided an incredibly wealth of first time that students around the world assess constructive comments on how their schools can their business schools on how they perceive their increase their positive impact. This rating is a positive impact in the world. The positive impact further sign that 2019 was the year were the of business schools goes beyond their youth spoke up and the global consciousness contribution to business and the economy; it shifted regarding not only the climate crisis but addresses the need for their positive impact for also social justice. society. Students are very clear in what they want their “Future generations will be grateful for schools to STOP doing: 1) Stop investing in fossil students selecting PIR business schools. fuels; 2) Stop treating sustainability & social Such enlightened leaders are the key for entrepreneurship as second-class topics; 3) Stop business to achieve a positive impact for the world.” partnering and accepting funds from unethical Antonio Hautle, Executive Director, companies and individuals; 4) Stop hiring UN Global Compact Switzerland professors who do not care about doing good, 5) Stop emphasizing profit maximization, 6) Stop The larger role of business schools flying students abroad for a course just because it’s cool to do so. Business schools are traditionally seen to serve students by developing their management There is also global consensus on what they want competences and to serve business organizations their schools to START doing: 1) Make by providing them with educated talent, insights from research and continuous education for their sustainability and social impact training staff. Business schools thereby support business mandatory in curricula; 2) Bring science and facts and the economy. Providing a positive impact for to the political debate; 3) Reduce CO2 emissions society has not been considered as core to business & food waste; 4) Prioritize gender parity amongst schools, but demands for it have steadily increased students and faculty; 5) Exchange more with in the past decade as exemplified by the UN other schools and faculties, share good practice Sustainable Development Goals. This new business and evolve together; 6) Rename the school to school rating responds to these demands. underline the social mission of business education. “Students demand a paradigm shift at business schools. After strongly raising our A tool for collaborative learning and action voice in 2019, the PIR enables us now to act The purpose of the positive impact rating is to with the schools to achieve that deep enable learning at and across schools, rather change.” than creating a competitive ranking. A rating Clémentine Robert, offers the safety of groups rather than individual President oikos International ranks and intends to foster collaboration. First Edition Jan 2020 www.PositiveImpactRating.org/PIR2020 2 Schools therefore are positioned in five different How the participating schools perform levels, where they are featured alphabetically. In this first edition of the Positive Impact Rating, Students and the management of each we set out to learn from a varied set of top participating school receive free online access to schools around the world. For this, international a dashboard featuring their school’s results student organizations reached out to students at across the different areas in comparison with the the top 50 schools in the Financial Times Masters average of all schools. This allows them to in Management 2018 ranking (FT) and the top 50 actively work towards increasing their positive school in the Corporate Knights Green MBA impact. Some students have reported that ranking (CK). 51 business schools participated in meetings are already scheduled with school the rating. management. The Positive Impact Rating features 30 leading How to measure the impact of business schools? schools that have performed well in this student The ambition of this rating is to be a lever of rating. While no school made the top level 5, nine change in the much-needed deep schools are featured in level 4. These transformation of business schools. Rankings “transforming schools” show a positive impact have become increasingly important and this culture, embedded in governance and systems, rating builds on this phenomenon by offering a with visible results in a number of impact new and hopefully better way to assess business dimensions. A further 21 schools feature in level st schools in the 21 century. The impact of 3. These “progressing schools” show results business schools is measured in three areas across some impact dimensions. In the spirit of (energizing, educating, and engaging) which are reinforcing good practice, the rating does not further divided into seven dimensions (see feature schools that were rated below level 3. table). These dimensions include assessing the The nine transforming schools at level 4 are rated programs offered and the learning methods significantly better in the impact dimensions used, and how students actively engage. It governance (23% higher) and culture (18% assesses a school’s culture and governance, higher) than the rest of the schools, showing the which are predictors for becoming a positive importance of these dimensions in the change impact school. And it looks at how members of process. the school are seen to engage in public as well as how the school is seen as serving as a role model Among the 51 participating schools, 26 appear in in the eyes of students. the FT and 19 in the CK rankings. Among the leading 30 schools, there are 13 FT and 11 CK Areas Dimensions of impact schools. It is interesting to note that there are no top 25 FT schools among the level 4 schools, Energizing Governance while level 4 includes three top 10 CK schools. Culture The FT and CK rankings measure quality differently, with the “green” CK ranking a notch Educating Programs closer to measuring impact. Learning Methods PIR learning = Peer learning Student Engagement Students around the world are clear in their assessment that schools have much room for Engaging Institution as a role model improvement when it comes to preparing them for dealing with sustainability challenges in their Public Engagement jobs and for a school reporting on its First Edition Jan 2020 www.PositiveImpactRating.org/PIR2020 3 responsibility and sustainability performance inspire exchange and learning within and (the role model dimension shows the lowest between schools, regionally or according to the score). Students also critique their schools change priorities. regarding their public engagement as well as the low level of student engagement (second and By students for students third lowest scores). The international student organizations oikos, AIESEC, and Net Impact have joined forces with The nine top rated schools on level 4 are WWF Switzerland, OXFAM International and UN recognized by their students for including Global Compact Switzerland to launch this sustainability and societal engagement in their radically new business school rating. Together, mission and for the degree to which these are these stakeholders represent the environment, seen as a driving force for the school (23% higher society, business, and the next generation. In than average). These schools are also recognized addition to changing business schools, they want by their students for having a culture that is to provide a more relevant selection tool for aligned with their school’s purpose, for most of future students. Many of these future students their people being highly motivated beyond self- care deeply about making a positive difference interest and for strongly supporting personal through their professional lives, yet they don’t development (18% higher than average). necessarily know how to find the right business The full PIR rating report includes best practice school. This rating is a tool for this next examples of those schools that have rated generation of change agents and as such is a exceptionally well in one or the other of the response to wide-spread demands for a positive seven dimensions. These examples are meant to impact of business schools. First Edition Jan 2020 www.PositiveImpactRating.org/PIR2020 4 SECTION 1 Transforming the Business School Landscape Capturing the voice of the youth What my