University Receives Accreditation for Developing Sustainable Leaders of the Future
Thursday, 06 January 2022
The University of Worcester’s Business School has received a prestigious accreditation from the United Nations for its work to develop sustainable leaders of the future.
The UN-led Principles of Responsible Management Education (PRME) engages business and management schools to ensure they provide future leaders with the skills needed to balance economic and sustainability goals, while drawing attention to the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and aligning academic institutions with the work of the UN Global Compact.
The University of Worcester has a long-held commitment to sustainability and has been placed in the top three UK universities for Quality Education (SDG4) in the Times Higher Education’s University Impact Rankings for the past three years.
The University has embedded sustainability into much of its curriculum, including in the Business School.
Anne-Marie McTavish, Head of Worcester Business School (WBS), said: “We are really pleased to gain PRME accreditation for our work. Sustainability and global social responsibility under-pin the University of Worcester’s business practices. There has been a long-standing commitment to environmental management, social sustainability, the mitigation of climate change, and the inclusion of sustainability topics within curricula.
“As business schools form the link between responsible management knowledge generation and knowledge transfer, we are uniquely placed to prepare current and future business leaders within our learning communities and internal and external networks, to make responsible, sustainable, and ethical management decisions and transform their thinking. Through this WBS promotes positive, lifelong impacts and widespread contributions to the SDGs.”
The Business School mapped all its undergraduate modules against the SDGs, to identify contributions and gaps. This was then scaled up to course level revealing that the Business School was already teaching responsibility, sustainability, and ethics within all undergraduate degree courses.
Ms McTavish added: “We believe that our most valuable contributions to the development of a just and sustainable future across all four pillars of sustainability are to develop future leaders and managers with appropriate knowledge, skills, attributes, and values that enable them to change business from within, and to engage with organisations to solve real-life problems for both the organisation and society.”