CEMS PRME Report on Sustainability & Responsibility (2021 - 2023)

Report on Sustainability and Responsibility

2021-2023

Message from the CEMS Chair

CEMS – The Global Alliance in Management Education - is a powerful network for having an impact on a sustainable future. CEMS is built on partnership, learning, and the cross-cultural exchange of ideas. This community, comprised of extraordinary business schools, outstanding corporate partners, alumni and students across the world, is key in adapting to these challenging yet exciting times.

The CEMS MIM Programme provides students with a global outlook, profound knowledge and an ability to navigate the world with a clear values compass. The CEMS MIM curriculum and the research conducted at our member schools are embedded in our pursuit of developing and equipping the next generation of business leaders to be champions of the United Nation’s Sustainable Development Goals. CEMS graduates have the potential to push boundaries and create a better, more sustainable world. CEMS has been part of the PRME initiative since 2010, establishing responsibility and inter-

connectivity as the main priorities towards building a better world. In these times of war, economic turmoil and re-nationalization, it has been particularly disruptive in higher education and social unrest worldwide, CEMS is therefore becoming more important than ever to forge strong partnerships across borders and strengthen cross-cultural exchanges, and our commitment to PRME has been continuously growing.

Our values: integrity, humility, cultural diversity, respect and empathy are guiding lights for the world as a whole. We are committed to increase the collaboration between all members and partners and see CEMS setting the agenda for how business schools need to develop for a better and sustainable future.

I am pleased to endorse this report and invite you to see our commitment and significant progress we have made in the past two years towards the implementation of the six PRME principles.

Professor Lars Strannegard CEMS Chair President of the Stockholm School of Economics

Executive Summary

CEMS is a global alliance of leading business schools, multinational companies and NGOs jointly delivering a pre-experience Master in International Management (CEMS MIM) programme that prepares future generations of responsible leaders.

CEMS has a strong commitment towards the implementation of the six PRME principles as outlined below and has made significant progress aligning with each of the principles in the past two years.

Principle 1: Purpose

CEMS’ vision is rooted in educating the purpose generation. Each of the elements in the CEMS curriculum is carefully designed with its own purpose to increase the awareness and preparedness of the students to face future business challenges, including Block Seminars, Global Citizenship Seminars, Skill Seminars, Business Projects, CEMS Core and Exclusive Courses, Elective Courses and Global Courses.

There are also purposeful student-led regional events that align with the commitment to sustainability, such as the DACH Forum, LATAM Forum, Marenostrum, Nordic Forum and V4 Conference, and all these events have been a great success in the past two years despite the global pandemic.

Through curricular and extracurricular activities, CEMS students are exposed to critical thinking and made aware of the challenges faced in today’s globalized world.

Principle 2: Values

CEMS is a value-based organization. The CEMS Vision and Mission guide the alliance in the communication with its member schools, Corporate and Social Partners, as well as in the offering of the CEMS MIM programme.

CEMS develops the students’ mindset and instills the CEMS values from the moment they are accepted into the CEMS MIM programme through to after graduation via the CEMS Global Values Statement.

Some CEMS awards recognize the students and alumni who have shared and practiced the CEMS values and contribute towards the society, such as the “CEMS Alumni of the Year Award” and the “CEMS Philippe Louvet Innovation Award”.

Principle 3: Method

The CEMS MIM curriculum is co-created and carefully-designed by academic directors from the CEMS member schools, with input from Corporate/Social Partners, as well as CEMS students and alumni. Further, the curriculum is continuously evolving with the times and further modified to be in tune with the CEMS values.

For quality assurance, every member school is subject to a “Peer Review” which aims to establish a high level of quality in all CEMS-related activities and to ensure programme satisfaction level meeting the best standards as well as to provide opportunities for practice sharing. Fourteen CEMS member schools have successfully completed the CEMS Peer Review in the past two years.

CEMS also creates an environment for students to put what they have learnt from theory into practice through various activities, such as the CEMS Global Responsibility Week and the consulting projects offered by New Generation Consulting, in addition to the Business Projects in the curriculum.

Principle 4: Research

Research is at the forefront of all academic activities at all CEMS member schools. Collectively, at the global level, CEMS faculty teams engage in collaborative research leading to publications, and bring their research insights into teaching. Faculty within CEMS member schools collaborate globally to work on shared areas of interests, such as the Global Leadership and Cross Cultural Management Faculty Group and the Business and the Environment Faculty Group. Also, CEMS students can engage in “issue-focused” research projects with “internationality” as an optional programme element.

Principle 5: Partnership

CEMS was built on the vision of creating a bridge between the academic and corporate worlds. The core success from CEMS stems from a solid partnership with academics, corporates and NGOs in the alliance.

There are numerous CEMS events that bring together the academic, corporate and/or social partners together every year, such as the CEMS Corporate Partners’ Conference, CEMS Career Forum, CEMS APAC Week, CEMS Global Recruitment

Event, and the Estoril Conferences. All these events would not have been so successful without the great support from the academic, corporate and social partnership in the past two years.

Principle 6: Dialogue

CEMS engages all its stakeholders in dialogues through bi-annual or annual meetings/events, encouraging frequent communication, updates, best practice sharing of the past as well as to brainstorm new ideas to look forward to the future. The major signature event every year is the CEMS Annual Events.

Also, each level of the CEMS governance, including the Strategic Board, General Assembly, Academic Committee, Management Council, Programme Managers, Corporate Relations Managers, Student Board and Alumni Association, will meet one to three times a year depending on the needs of their respective functions.

From time to time, CEMS has also gathered representative stakeholders to form task forces to analyze particular areas of improvement in the CEMS MIM programme. The most recent task forces are the Diversity and Inclusion Task Force and the Graduate Profile Task Force.

Looking forward, CEMS will continue its efforts in aligning its commitment with the CEMS values as well as the PRME principles. Further work will be continued for the Diversity and Inclusion and the CEMS Graduate Profile 2035. A Strategic Board initiative is carried out to reconfirm CEMS values and there are new initiatives to be implemented such as Thought Leadership to bring the CEMS alliance to another level.

About CEMS

CEMS is a global alliance of leading business schools, multinational companies and NGOs jointly delivering a pre-experience Master in International Management (CEMS MIM) programme that prepares future generations of responsible leaders. There are currently 33 CEMS member schools , 70+ Corporate Partners and 8 Social Partners in the alliance.

Quick facts

Founded in 1988

33 CEMS Member Schools and a presence on every continent

70+ Corporate Partners and 8 Social Partners

1 289 students 76 nationalities 48/52 men/women ratio (2022/23 class)

CEMS 2021 Graduate Profile

96% are employed or continuing their studies

CEMS Alumni Profile

98% are employed or continuing their studies

49% have worked for a CEMS Corporate or Social Partner

19 000 alumni of 100+ nationalities working in 75+ countries

92% have worked outside of their home country

75% work for multinational companies

44% are working outside of their home country

98% would recommend experience to others

93% have worked outside of their home country at some point in their career

CEMS MIM Programme

The CEMS MIM programme is a joint master’s programme offered by a global alliance of CEMS member schools, Corporate Partners and Social Partners that together offer one of the top ranked master’s programmes in management globally. The programme learning objectives are organized into 5 competency categories:

Internationalism: Our graduates are knowledgeable international business practitioners, able to execute effective business decision-making in diverse contexts. This is reinforced by the international internship completed by each of our students during their year of study.

Business Embeddedness: Our graduates apply advanced management and leadership competencies developed through systematic experience of and engagement with the corporate world.

Responsible Citizenship: Our graduates champion a holistic vision of responsible business

decision-making, leadership and citizenship, informed by ethical reasoning, personal integrity, and respect for social diversity.

Reflective Critical Thinking: Our graduates are confident, agile, and reflective decision-makers and problem-solvers, able to formulate and apply innovative solutions to complex business challenges.

Comprehensive Leadership: Our graduates are fully aware of their personal responsibility and accountability and of the ethical and cultural frameworks in which leadership is exerted.

The CEMS MIM programme consists of three terms: two academic terms (Term 1 & Term 2) and the internship term (Term 3). Students are required to spend at least two out of the three terms abroad to immerse themselves into different cultures and get the most out of the cross-cultural exposure to prepare for their future career.

other CEMS Courses

Seminar Business Project

The CEMS curriculum is complemented with exclusive and unique courses in transversal topics reflecting the most contemporary business trends, including Block Seminars, CEMS Core and Exclusive Courses, Global Citizenship Seminars, Skill Seminars, Business Projects, Elective Courses and Global Courses. They stem from the strengths and diversity of the stakeholders of our vast network as the curriculum is co-created, carefully-designed and refined by faculty academic directors from the CEMS member schools, with input from CEMS Corporate and Social Partners, as well as CEMS students and alumni.

The CEMS MIM curriculum will be discussed in more detail in the section of Principle 1: Purpose.

CEMS MIM Rankings

In the latest QS Business Master’s Ranking 2023: Management, CEMS was ranked in the top 8% globally for ‘employability’, as well as in the top 8.4% for ‘value for money’. In addition, CEMS scored well above the global average for thought leadership, alumni outcomes and diversity.

Nine CEMS member schools are ranked in the top 20 of the Financial Times Masters in Management 2022, with University of St. Gallen, HEC Paris, Rotterdam School of Management and Stockholm School of Economics achieving the top four positions.

35th Anniversary

CEMS was founded in 1988 with four member schools and a handful of Corporate Partners. Since then this management education alliance has grown to become a world leading global community.

At the start, the “E” of CEMS was a key proposition - the European management style for European schools. Yet, higher education has increasingly become a global industry in the last 20 years, with an exponential increase of the number of student enrollment in foreign universities and a parallel increase in the number of student exchange programmes. In the early 2000s, the CEMS leadership realized the importance of gradually extending the borders of the alliance and transforming it into a global one. At its 20th Anniversary back in 2008, CEMS welcomed its first three full members outside Europe, covering Australia, Brazil and Singapore. It was one of the most important steps CEMS ever made.

CEMS is now celebrating its 35th Anniversary, and CEMS is now more relevant than ever. The celebration themes for the 35th Anniversary collectively contribute to the world of CEMS and are in line with the CEMS vision as well as our commitment to PRME, including community, evolution, impact and purpose, sustainability, inspiration, responsibility, creativity, knowledge, innovation, diversity, and leadership.

The 35th Anniversary will be celebrated at the Annual Events in London hosted by the London School of Economics and Political Science in December 2023.

Principles for Responsible Management Education

Overview

The Principles for Responsible Management Education (PRME) is a United Nations-supported initiative founded in 2007. As a platform to raise the profile of sustainability in schools around the world, PRME equips today’s business students with the understanding and ability to deliver change tomorrow.

Working through Six Principles, 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 Six Principles

Purpose

The 17 Sustainable Development Goals

No poverty

Zero hunger

Good health and well-being

Quality education

Gender equality

Clean water and sanitation

Affordable and clean energy

Decent work and economic growth

Industry, innovation and infrastructure

Reduced inequalities

Values

Method

Sustainable cities and communities

Responsible consumption and production

Climate action

Life below water

Life on land

Peace, justice and strong institutions

Partnership for the goals

Principle 1: Purpose

PRME

We will develop the capabilities of students to be future generators of sustainable value for business and society at large and to work for an inclusive and sustainable global economy.

CEMS

CEMS’ vision is rooted in educating the purpose generation. To be part of the CEMS world is to acknowledge that great leadership starts with self-leadership and that we all need to take authentic responsibility. Through curricular and extracurricular activities, CEMS students are exposed to critical thinking and made aware of the challenges faced in today’s globalized world.

CEMS Commitment to Sustainability

CEMS is much more than an academic programme, it is an alliance of academic institutions, corporate visionaries, NGOs, and business leaders who seek to raise our collective global consciousness and create greater value for all through meaningful collaborations.

CEMS is committed to educating responsible business leaders contributing to a more sustainable world. We learn from our stakeholders on how to advance on this goal and how we in the CEMS world solve challenges and shape a sustainable future.

In line with our commitment to sustainability, CEMS develops the students’ mindset towards this commitment from the moment they are accepted into the CEMS MIM programme. Students are on a path to responsible citizenship and are held to the highest standards of ethical and social responsibility and professional integrity. In doing so, students will:

be exposed to interdisciplinary challenges within an international context

have access to best-in-class and hybrid teaching methods as well as a diverse curriculum

be required to adopt an analytical and critical attitude

be trained in collaboration with worldrenowned organizations by consolidating theoretical and experiential learning

be a part of a global community taking part in exclusive international networking events and seizing employment opportunities

Students are expected to share the CEMS core values and draw upon cultural diversity with respect and empathy and accountability in relation to society as a whole.

CEMS MIM Curriculum

Aligning with the CEMS MIM programme learning objectives, each of the elements in the CEMS curriculum is carefully designed with its own purpose to increase the awareness and preparedness of the students to face future business challenges.

All CEMS member schools are required to offer all of the below CEMS MIM courses during the CEMS MIM year. CEMS students will be exposed to each element no matter whether they are at their home school or host school in order to fulfil the CEMS graduation requirements. In addition to the courses in the CEMS curriculum, CEMS students are also required to spend a semester abroad, complete an international internship, and have competency in three languages at the time of graduation.

Block Seminar

The Block Seminar is a one-week intensive course with subjects that derive from different cultural and academic perspectives; many topics are not a part of the universities’ standard curricula.

Global Citizenship Seminar

The Global Citizenship Seminar is a two-day course bringing together representatives from Corporate and/or Social Partners, professors and students in a unique synergy. Within the Global Citizenship Seminar, students will have the opportunity to engage with the Sustainable Development Goals through experiential learning.

Skill Seminars

Skill Seminars are training seminars in practical skills to kick-start an effective professional career and are fundamental to adjust easily to an international management environment. Delivered as interactive class sessions, CEMS skill seminars are integrated into the programme to help students to have efficient soft skills, including but not limited to sustainability, strategy skills, personal and career development, consulting skills, marketing and communication skills, and leadership and teambuilding.

Business Projects

Business Projects are consultancy-like projects in which students collaborate directly with CEMS Corporate and/or Social Partners to help solve

real-life business problems. The Business Projects reinforce the partnership between universities and companies in jointly shaping students’ learning process in international management contexts. These projects are designed to give students hands-on business experience with a company to learn about their industry while finding solutions for the challenges of tomorrow.

CEMS Core and Exclusive Courses

The CEMS Core and Exclusive Courses are the best selection of courses with an International Management profile chosen by individual CEMS member schools, and offered exclusively to CEMS students.

Global Strategy and Global Leadership are the two compulsory core courses in the offerings from all CEMS member schools in Term 1 and Term 2 respectively. Global Strategy is a course that enables students to grasp the why, how and what of strategy in reshaping the future of economies and societies in a way that is meaningful and impactful. Global Leadership equips students with the knowledge and skills to manage people across borders and within multinational teams, creating culturally savvy individuals that show empathy and can relate to and interact with different cultures.

Elective Courses

The Elective Courses are a selection of best courses with an International Management profile chosen from the portfolio of individual CEMS member schools. Among the Elective Courses, students are required to learn about hard skills focusing on the training of students’ quantitative and computational skills, and emphasize the application and implementation in preferably real business-decision settings.

Global Courses

Global Courses include Global Online Electives and UNFCCC Courses.

Global Online Electives are aimed at providing students access to courses across the Alliance to add further value to their CEMS experience. CEMS students can take one global elective course at any CEMS member schools apart from their home and host school.

The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) is the annual meeting of the Conference of Parties (COP). The CEMS Climate Change Course and its Model UNFCCC is a semester-long lecture series on the topic of climate change and climate policy at the Masters level. The lecture series are followed by a unique two-day simulation of UN climate negotiations, where close to 200 students from 12 CEMS universities play the roles of government, non-government and industry representatives.

A total of 731 courses with Sustainability nature or related to Sustainability* were offered in 2021-2023 (as of mid-Mar 2023)**.

35 Block Seminars

59 Global Citizenship Seminars

74 Skill Seminars

152 Business Projects

57 CEMS Core and Exclusive Courses

354 Elective Courses (including 70 Global Online Electives )

* A classification of the CEMS courses is conducted based on a broad understanding that the course include sustainability as an important element.

** At the time of writing the report, it is in the middle of the 2022-2023 academic year. The course statistics are recorded based on the registered courses up to mid-March 2023.

In May 2021 and 2022, University of St. Gallen, ESADE Business School, University of Cologne, Rotterdam School of Management, Corvinus University of Budapest, Bocconi University, Warsaw School of Economics, Stockholm School of Economics, Aalto University and NHH Norwegian School of Economics have jointly organized the UNFCCC course.

Students had the chance to learn about the often-diverging interests of parties involved in global climate policy negotiations, including governments, sector specific industry associations, global companies, and environmental & humanitarian non-governmental organizations (NGOs). The course enabled students to learn about strategic frameworks for assessing the impact of climate change on markets and customer demand, which is essential for developing corporate strategies that avoid the negative consequences of climate change and take advantage of business opportunities evolving from a changing market environment.

Student-led Regional Events

In addition to the CEMS MIM programme elements, there are also purposeful extracurricular activities organized by students in different regions, and all these activities are aligned with the commitment to sustainability.

Every year, student clubs work on a rotating basis to offer an event to their fellow students and corporate partners in their region that focuses on a particular business topic and includes company presentations, case studies, skill seminars, networking and in some cases, company interviews. The major student-led initiatives include the DACH Forum, LATAM Forum, Marenostrum, Nordic Forum and V4 Conference.

date

18-21 October 2022

host

Vienna University of Economics and Business (Vienna, Austria) topic

Globalization and Emerging Markets

The CEMS DACH Forum is a yearly rotating regional event which is organized by CEMS students from the three top business schools located in the DACH-area: University of Cologne, University of St. Gallen and Vienna University of Economics and Business.

date

19-22 October 2021

host

University of St. Gallen (St. Gallen, Switzerland) topic

Integrated Management & Leadership

The LATAM Forum is a yearly rotating regional event which is organized by CEMS students among the South American schools of the alliance, Universidad Adolfo Ibáñez, Escola de Administração de Empresas de São Paulo-FGV and Universidad de los Andes School of Management (starting from 2023).

The forum is the occasion for students to learn more about sustainability and South America’s social issues, to hear about corporate partners’ initiatives, to learn about local initiatives and give back to the community.

date

15-17 November 2021

host

Universidad Adolfo Ibáñez (Santiago, Chile)

topic

How to Navigate Global Uncertainty and the Current Issues in the Region

Marenostrum (“Our Sea” in Latin) was a Roman name for the Mediterranean Sea. Today, it is a regional business forum organized by CEMS students from four top business schools in the Mediterranean region: Bocconi University, Nova School of Business and Economics, ESADE Business School and Koç University.

date 16-18 April 2021

host Koç University Graduate School of Business (Istanbul, Turkey)

topic

Sustainability as a Strategy

date

18-21 November 2022

host

Escola de Administração de Empresas de São Paulo-FGV (Sao Paulo, Brazil)

topic

Sustainability in Today’s South America

date

24-25 March 2022

host

ESADE Business School (Barcelona, Spain)

topic

Conscious Consumption

The V4 Conference is an annual CEMS event in Central Europe, hosted on a rotating basis by CEMS member schools of the Visegrad Group which includes Corvinus University of Budapest, SGH Warsaw School of Economics and Prague University of Economics and Business.

date

20-22 April 2022

host

SGH Warsaw School of Economics (Warsaw, Poland)

topic

Challenges of the Modern Management

The CEMS Nordic Forum is the largest annual CEMS conference and career event in Scandinavia, organized on a rotating basis by the four Nordic CEMS schools: Aalto University, Copenhagen Business School, Norwegian School of Economics, and Stockholm School of Economics.

date

12-14 April 2021

host

Norwegian School of Economics (Bergen, Norway)

topic

Sustainable Business and Innovation for the Decade of Action

date

27-29 April 2022

host

Aalto University (Helsinki, Finland)

topic

Business Transformation for a Sustainable World

Principle 2: Values

PRME

We will incorporate into our academic activities, curricula, and organizational practices the values of global social responsibility as portrayed in international initiatives such as the United Nations Global Compact.

CEMS

CEMS is a value based organization and empowers students and graduates to follow their curiosity and make full use of the learning resources available in the CEMS network with the highest standard of ethical and social responsibility and professional integrity.

CEMS Vision and Mission Vision

CEMS is recognized as a unique global community, comprising the world’s finest students, alumni, schools, corporate and social partners. The CEMS 2025 vision is focused on delivering the leading CEMS MIM programme that prepares responsible leaders contributing to a more open, sustainable and inclusive world.

Mission

The CEMS Mission Statement is a reflection of CEMS’ ethical and responsible approach to management education.

CEMS is a global alliance of academic and corporate institutions dedicated to educating and preparing future generations of international business leaders. The CEMS academic and corporate members work collectively to develop knowledge and provide education that is essential in the multilingual, multicultural and interconnected business world. The joint CEMS MIM Programme is the main vehicle for achieving this goal.

Common to all activities is the aim of promoting global citizenship, with particular emphasis placed upon the following values:

The pursuit of excellence with high standards of performance and ethical conduct; Understanding and drawing upon cultural diversity with respect and empathy; Professional responsibility and accountability in relation to society as a whole.

CEMS Global Values Statement

CEMS develops the students’ mindset and instills the CEMS values from the moment they are accepted into the CEMS MIM programme through to after graduation. CEMS students are on a path to responsible citizenship and are held to the highest standards of ethical and social responsibility and professional integrity. They are expected to share the CEMS core values and draw upon cultural diversity with respect and empathy and accountability in relation to society as a whole.

With the goal of raising the awareness of the values at the heart of the CEMS community, the CEMS Global Values Statement is integrated into every year’s CEMS graduation ceremony. This is to give students the opportunity to formally commit to uphold these values on the day of their graduation. This act strengthens these va-

lues that we see as guiding principles for everyday decision making both as a student and as a professional.

“As a lifelong member of the CEMS community, I hereby commit to uphold and be guided by the following principles:

The pursuit of excellence with the highest ethical standards, integrity, and humility. Professional responsibility and accountability in relation to society and the environment.

Drawing upon the value of cultural diversity with respect and empathy.

My decisions and actions, both now and in the future, will reflect this Commitment to Global Citizenship that I make here today.”

CEMS Awards

CEMS has set up numerous awards to recognize the efforts of the CEMS member schools, students and alumni in contributing to the success of the CEMS alliance. These awards ranges from “School of the Year”, “Course of the Year”, “Business Project of the Year” and “CEMS Club of the Year”, etc.

Other awards recognize the students and alumni who have shared and practiced the CEMS values and contributed towards the society, including “CEMS Alumni of the Year” and the “CEMS Philippe Louvet Innovation Award”.

CEMS Alumni of the Year Award

The CEMS Alumni Awards are presented annually to outstanding alumni in recognition of excellent contributions to promote one or many of the CEMS values based on the 5 important parameters, including Global Citizenship, Cultural Diversity, Professional Responsibility, Professional Accountability and Impact on society as a whole.

Together with CEMS Corporate Partner L’Oréal, the “CEMS Philippe Louvet Innovation Award” was created in memory of Philippe Louvet, former Vice President Human Resources at L’Oréal, CEMS Honorary Member and CEMS Strategic Advisor. This award celebrates Philippe Louvet’s passion for education and for CEMS, his constant quest for innovation in education, and his unique ability to build bridges between business and academia.

The CEMS Philippe Louvet Innovation Award aims at encouraging and enabling innovation that will bring value to the community and its stakeholders within the CEMS alliance.

CEMS Philippe Louvet Innovation Award

The Social Impact Project won the CEMS Philippe Louvet Innovation Award 2022. Three CEMS students from ESADE Business School and Corvinus University of Budapest aimed to create an opportunity for changemakers to act together and tackle global challenges through three pillars:

Raising awareness and giving students the key to solve challenges

Providing students with flexibility to diversify their experience and knowledge

Involving students and thereby inspiring them to lead the change

Through the Social Impact Project, students will support people in developing countries to resolve the social and environmental challenges they are facing. The two main objectives are to enable students to become impactful changemakers by going through a hands-on transformative experience and to strengthen the global impact of CEMS, thereby positing the alliance as a force for positive change.

Principle 3: Method

PRME

We will create educational frameworks, materials, processes and environments that enable effective learning experiences for responsible leadership.

CEMS

The CEMS MIM curriculum is co-created, carefully-designed and continuously refined by faculty academic directors from the CEMS member schools, with input from Corporate/Social Partners, as well as CEMS students and alumni. CEMS also creates an environment for students to put what they have learnt from theory into practice through various themed events and projects.

CEMS Curriculum Development/Improvement

As outlined in Principle 1, the CEMS MIM curriculum is complemented with exclusive and unique courses in transversal topics reflecting the most contemporary business trends. The CEMS alliance has always been aware of the need for change, and the CEMS MIM curriculum is continuously evolving with the times and further modified to be in tune with the CEMS values.

The Academic Committee created a curriculum sub-committee responsible for new course descriptions and setting minimum joint topics to be covered in CEMS core courses. Namely, it affected the Global Strategy and then the Global Leadership courses. In addition, changes have been created to the guidelines related to the Global Citizenship Seminar, which must now have a clear link to the Sustainable Development Goals. The response to both the Global Leadership courses and the Global Citizenship Seminar shows how much CEMS can be a change for good.

In addition to the Global Citizenship Seminar that is based on the SDGs, we have seen the move

towards a number of member schools working in cross collaboration across business projects. Further, due to student-led requests, the introduction of mandatory quantitative skills that range across many diverse areas, as well as the launch and implementation of the Global Elective open to all CEMS students have been successful.

The newly set up Graduate Profile Task Force has also made concrete suggestions on further strengthening each component of the CEMS MIM curriculum. More details on the work of the task force will be discussed in Principle 6: Dialogue.

CEMS Quality Assurance & Peer Review

In order to maintain a high standard of programme offering, CEMS not only constantly develops its curriculum but all individual programme elements as well as the support services provided by the academic members. It allows us to make sure that our programme satisfaction level meets the best standards and to ensure that the programme learning objectives are met.

Every five to six years, and during the second year of full CEMS MIM programme operations,

every member school is subject to a “Peer Review”. The aim of this review process is to establish a high level of quality in all CEMS-related activities, such as CEMS MIM programme delivery, Corporate Partner relationship, marketing, networking etc., and to share good practices among the schools.

14 CEMS member schools have successfully completed the CEMS peer review process in 2021-2023.

(As of March 2023)

CEMS Global Responsibility Week

As the CEMS member schools are scattered across the globe and in diverse environments, CEMS aims to give each school the opportunity to include a challenge that is impactful, measurable and linked to their local environment. It also aims to give all CEMS students a chance to give back to their communities, engage in conversations and dive deep into topics of Corporate Social Responsibility. The CEMS Student Board has thus designed a Global Responsibility Week and invites all CEMS schools and students to participate every year.

In 2021, the Global Responsibility Week was held from 16-20 November. There were keynote speeches, panel discussions, workshops and podcasts throughout the week to share insights on a sustainability future in business and the students’ career.

New Generation Consulting

New Generation Consulting (NGC) offers a new approach to consulting, where international students pursuing the CEMS MIM programme work in virtual teams and act as consultants to help social organizations overcome business-related problems.

Since 2013, NGC has led the effort to help social enterprises, start-ups and NGOs to solve their challenges and achieve their goals by providing consulting projects led by CEMS students. The projects are also supported by successful members of the CEMS Alumni, who are sitting in the offices of the biggest tech giants, consultancies, charities, or in the CEO chairs of some of the most innovative start-ups. They are also working in close collaboration with top consultancies such as McKinsey, Boston Consulting Group, and Bain, who provide advice and mentorship to the teams.

Through the work on NGC’s real-life cases, CEMS students gain not only an insight into different business models, the ones used in varying social organizations, but also get the opportunity to deal with complex business issues and be challenged as a real consultant. More importantly, it is a perfect opportunity for CEMS students to practice their knowledge for giving back to society and impacting the world positively.

A total of 16 NGC projects were conducted with the collective effort of 55 consultants in 2021 while a total of 14 NGC projects were conducted with the collective effort of 52 consultants in 2022.

Principle 4: Research

PRME

We will engage in conceptual and empirical research that advances our understanding about the role, dynamics, and impact of corporations in the creation of sustainable social, environmental and economic value.

CEMS

Research is at the forefront of all academic activities at all CEMS member schools. Collectively, at the CEMS level, CEMS faculty teams engage in collaborative research leading to publications, and bring their research insights into teaching. CEMS students can also engage in “issue-focused” research projects with “internationality” as an optional programme element.

University Research

In addition to delivering purposeful education to develop future leaders, all CEMS member schools are committed to advancing knowledge and promoting knowledge transfer through rigorous research that can impact and contribute to both the local and global business communities. Many of the member schools are the world’s top research schools in business with dedicated research centers in multiple disciplines. Their faculty members are scholars who continuously conduct quality and insightful research that has a direct impact on society and supports important economic and business decisions in today’s dynamic business world. The schools as well as the scholars aspire to be the driving force for a positive change in the world.

The CEMS alliance also offers a unique platform for faculty working within CEMS member schools to collaborate globally and work on shared areas of interest, among them the Global Leadership and Cross Cultural Management Faculty Group and the Business and the Environment Faculty Group are the most active ones.

A recent research, conducted by a CEMS faculty from the ESADE Business School, offers insights on purposedriven alliances contributing to a more positive and sustainable world. Published in April 2023, the book “Alliances for Sustainable Futures: Creating and Managing PurposeDriven Alliances” used CEMS Global Alliance in Management Education as one of the examples to provide an indepth exploration of the life cycle and evolutionary phases of sustainable alliances, and also to explore opportunities for successful partnerships to contribute to a sustainable future.

Student Research

To engage and foster research inside the alliance, CEMS students are given the option to undertake a Research Project as an optional programme element which can replace CEMS Elective credits during the CEMS MIM year. The CEMS Research Project has to be

“issue-focused”: dealing with a concrete problem, be it a corporate, economic or theoretical problem

“internationality”: dealing with a question that applies to more than one country

18% of CEMS Research Projects conducted has a Sustainability nature or was related to Sustainability in 2021-2023.

(As of mid-March 2023)

Principle 5: Partnership

PRME

We will interact with managers of business corporations to extend our knowledge of their challenges in meeting social and environmental responsibilities and to explore jointly effective approaches to meeting these challenges.

CEMS

CEMS was built on the vision of creating a bridge between the academic and corporate worlds. The core success from CEMS stems from a solid partnership with academics, corporates and NGOs in the alliance.

The strength of CEMS is the recognition that individual organizations become stronger, more inspiring, and more interesting when they team up together. Partnership helps us achieve things we are not able to in isolation. Partnership also helps us pool our strengths, share our work, and leverage each other’s capabilities.

Academic, Corporate & Social Partnerships

Academic Partnership: The CEMS Global Alliance comprises 33 member schools on 6 continents, delivering the CEMS MIM programme around the world. Only one school per country is allowed to join CEMS and all are top schools within their respective countries.

CEMS Corporate Partnership: CEMS Corporate Partnership is an exclusive academic-corporate partnership based on Corporate Partners contributing to the alliance and the CEMS MIM programme and benefitting from privileged access to a global pool of top talent from the world’s leading business schools. Today, over 70 worldrenowned companies operating in a variety of sectors work together with students, alumni and faculty as a part of this global business network.

CEMS Social Partnership: CEMS Social Partnership is an exclusive social-academic partnership based on the Social Partners contributing to the alliance and the CEMS MIM programme. Social Partners have an impact on the curriculum, the alliance and the thinking of the next generation of business leaders. Today, 8 non-profit organizations work together with students, alumni and faculty as a part of this global business network.

CEMS Corporate & Social Partners are active contributors to the CEMS network, interested in the development of international management education and recruitment. With the support of Corporate and Social Partners, CEMS is developing business leaders with professional responsibility and accountability in relation to society and the environment.

CEMS Corporate Events

The key CEMS signature corporate events that bring corporate and/or social partners together include the CEMS Corporate Partners’ Conference, CEMS Career Forum, CEMS APAC Week and CEMS Global Recruitment Event.

date

Spring 2021

host

Cornell SC Johnson College of Business (US) topic

Future of the Workplace: What happens next?

event highlights

Involved CEMS Corporate Partners include Gartner and Richemont.

For details, please refer to full event summary

date

9-19 March 2021

host

CEMS Asia-Pacific schools: The University of Sydney Business School, HKUST Business School, Tsinghua University School of Economics and Management, Indian Institute of Management Calcutta, Keio University, Korea University Business School, National University of Singapore.

event highlights

Involved CEMS Corporate Partners include AlphaSights, Amplifon, China CITIC Bank International, Daimler, Hilti, Jardine Matheson, McKinsey & Company, Richemont, United Overseas Bank.

For details, please refer to full event summary.

date

4-5 November 2022

host

ESADE Business School in (Barcelona, Spain)

event highlights

Almost 1,000 students and alumni from 70+ nationalities together with 300+ recruiters from 45 Corporate Partners have participated.

For details, please refer to the full event summary The video recap gives a glimpse of the event highlights in 2022.

date

7-11 March 2022

event highlights

Involved CEMS Corporate Partners include AlphaSights, Beiersdorf, DHL Consulting, Google, H&M, Kearney, LVMH, Novo Nordisk and the CEMS Entrepreneurs.

For details, please refer to full event summary

date

1-4 March 2022

event highlights

Over 20 CEMS Corporate Partners have offered pre-scheduled interviews and 1-on-1 chat to provide students with exclusive hiring opportunities in consulting, technology, consumer goods, finance, manufacturing and more. Please refer to the event highlights

Estoril Conferences

Established in 2009, the Estoril Conferences look to engage a multitude of high-profile leadership at the political, business, academic and civil society levels in inspiring new generations to, together, find possible solutions for our common challenges.

They are a platform to promote an open and impactful dialogue on global challenges to co-create effective coalitions for innovative solutions towards a sustainable and inclusive future for all. The main mission is to bring in the purpose generation and inspire all who want to create meaningful impact and push the world forward, creating an active and worldwide community of global citizens willing to take the lead for action.

This initiative explores the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) like climate action, purpose economy, artificial intelligence, and social inequalities to change our world. As drawn out in SDG 17 - Partnerships for the Goals - the UN SDGs represent an unprecedented political and international agreement on the world’s greatest challenges and the desired global level of progress and collaboration.

In cooperation with the founding community of Cascais (Portugal), NOVA School of Business and Economics took over organizing the Estoril Conferences in 2022. The CEMS Global Alliance contributes as a strategic partner in this mission.

into action. The conference had an audience of 2,000+ in-person plus 2,000+ online participants on both days of the event and was picked up by 180+ news media.

NOVA School of Business and Economics, the CEMS member school in Portugal, hosted the 7th edition of the Estoril Conferences on 1-2 September 2022.

Respecting the motto “Rebalancing Our World: A Call to The Purpose Generation”, the twoday programme brought together 100+ global thinkers, innovators, activists, and agitators with the intention to transform knowledge

Supporting the Estoril Conferences and running parallel events to reverberate the topic of “Rebalancing Our World”, were CEMS member schools Aalto University, The London School of Economics and Political Science, Ivey Business School at Western University, and Universidad de Los Andes. Aspirational CEMS MIM students were also involved in this event by giving their voice to poetic declarations for the purpose generation and extending their efforts as panel moderators. The event highlights were summarized in the “Best of Estoril Conferences 2022” video.

Principle 6: Dialogue

PRME

We will facilitate and support dialogue and debate among educators, students, business, government, consumers, media, civil society organizations and other interested groups and stakeholders on critical issues related to global social responsibility and sustainability.

CEMS

CEMS engages all its stakeholders in dialogues through bi-annual or annual meetings and events, encouraging frequent communication, updates, best practice sharing of the past as well as to brainstorm new ideas to look forward to the future.

CEMS Governance

CEMS is governed by the Strategic Board, the General Assembly and the Management Council, comprised of representatives from CEMS member schools, Corporate Partners, Social Partners, the Alumni Association and the Student Board.

There are also committees at each level of the governance body, including the Strategic Board, General Assembly, Academic Committee, Programme Managers, Corporate Relations Managers, Alumni Association and Student Board, who will meet one to three times a year depending on the needs of the respective functions.

CEMS Annual Events

The CEMS Annual Events are the highlight of the CEMS year and are also regarded as the networking events of the year. They represent an exceptional opportunity to bring together the entire community for discussions, decision-making, formal announcements and the graduation of CEMS MIM students.

The CEMS Annual Events are organized on a rotating basis by member schools. Academic and

corporate representatives, governing bodies, students and alumni from a variety of backgrounds meet, interact, and share their views and experiences of CEMS.

The CEMS community gathered for the Annual Events 2022 and graduation ceremony hosted by The American University in Cairo on 30 November – 3 December 2022. It was the first-ever CEMS Annual Events in the African continent held at the iconic Pyramids of Giza.

Task Forces on Special Projects

From time to time, CEMS gathers representative stakeholders to form task forces to analyze particular areas of improvement in the CEMS

MIM programme like admission and selection, curriculum reform, etc.. Recently, two new task forces have been set up to review hot topics that will contribute to the future programme design of the CEMS MIM programme.

Diversity and Inclusion Task Force (2020-2022)

The Diversity and Inclusion Task Force was formed to discuss the possible actions to align with the commitment on diversity and inclusion. All CEMS member schools were recommended to commit to the six areas of promoting equity, diversity and inclusion, including Ethnicity, Gender, Nationality and Domestic Students, Disabilities, Socioeconomics, and Academic Background.

During the selection process, CEMS member schools should consider equity, diversity and inclusion for students with different backgrounds. For example, a minimum average goal of women and men ratio is to be implemented at 35% for each CEMS member school’s cohort over five years, with the objective to maintain a 50% ratio on a global

Graduate Profile Task Force (2022 - )

The Graduate Profile Task Force has worked on shaping the graduate profile to align with the CEMS values and to prepare for the VUCA (volatility, uncertainty, complexity, and ambiguity) age.

This project was supported by over 70 stakeholders from the CEMS General Assembly, 20 Corporate and Social Partners, and the Academic Committee. Corporate and Social Partners were interviewed to provide their views from the corporate perspective while workshops were conducted among the Aca-

level across the CEMS network (only applicable to those identifying themselves as binary). Nationality is another consideration to have a good representation on internationality as well as a minimum number of domestic students for inclusion of under-represented regions and communities across the CEMS network. Further, schools are recommended to enroll students with non-business degree backgrounds to add diversity of thoughts and encourage learning agility, if it is possible.

From selection through to managing the students in the CEMS MIM programme, CEMS member schools should also give more inclusion support to students with disabilities and those who are socio-economically disadvantaged.

demic Committee and General Assembly for further consideration.

Competencies, selection criteria, academic background, work experience, language and skill requirements were all looked at and debated. The results from all the consultations and stakeholder wide workshops will form a guideline to shape the CEMS graduate profile in 2035. All stakeholders have supported that cross-border initiatives would have the most impact at increasing the interaction of students from different schools and stakeholders.

Future Objectives

Looking forward, CEMS will continue its efforts in aligning its commitment with the CEMS values as well as the PRME principles. For example, further work will be continued for the Diversity and Inclusion and Graduate Profile 2035. A Strategic Board initiative to reconfirm CEMS values is on the way, and another new initiative such as Thought Leadership is to be rolled out to bring the CEMS alliance to another level.

Diversity & Inclusion

Following up on the recommendations from the Diversity and Inclusion Task Force, the CEMS Global Office will continue its efforts in communicating this commitment with the CEMS member schools.

For student selection, CEMS member schools were recommended to ensure diversity in terms of gender, nationality and academic backgrounds. The CEMS Global Office will monitor and generate statistics on these aspects on an annual basis in the coming five years.

For supporting students with special needs, the CEMS Global Office has recently created a database for student services on abilities across all CEMS member schools. The database is shared among the programme managers and students with the aim to have a comprehensive overview of existing infrastructure and support services wherever and whenever needed. Then, a workshop is planned to be held in the Manager’s Meetings in June 2023 with best practices sharing sessions for schools to share their existing student services supporting abilities.

For supporting the students who are socioeconomically disadvantaged, CEMS member schools are encouraged to support applications from students in need of financial support by seeking help from CEMS Alumni and Corporate Partners. The CEMS Global Office is making effort to consolidate a database on the needbased scholarships or financial aids for students in need across all CEMS member schools.

The CEMS Graduate Profile 2035

Following up on the discussions of the Graduate Profile 2035 at the General Assembly and Academic Committee, the Graduate Profile Task Force will continue to review the CEMS MIM curriculum as well as the selection criteria to make sure necessary improvements are to be implemented to align with the preferred graduate profile 2035.

Some concrete suggestions from Corporate Partners were worth considering to further enhance

the CEMS courses, business projects, internships and career service offerings of the CEMS MIM programme.

Also, further investigations are planned to be conducted to look into the possibility and practicality of expanding the admission requirements to accept students with non-business backgrounds and/or with work experience.

CEMS Vision, Mission and Global Values Statement

Aligning with the ever-evolving industry trends and needs, the CEMS leadership works continually to revisit and fine-tune the CEMS values.

As we are living in an increasingly fragmented world where sustainability becomes more pressing every day, an emphasis on values related to intercultural dialogue and empathy, and sustainability should be promoted throughout the CEMS network. The CEMS leadership is currently working on a position paper to reconfirm these values.

Thought Leadership

CEMS is a global alliance with leading business schools and faculties in each country, together with a coalition of multinational companies and NGOs, as well as an extensive network of alumni and students all over the world, there is undoubtedly an ample pool of thought leaders in a wide range of fields across different geographical regions.

To leverage on the expertise from all levels of stakeholders across the CEMS network, there are many good reasons to develop and implement strategic Thought Leadership initiatives with an extensive range of activities, potentially including sharing academic research studies, white papers, conferences, best practices sharing, networking events, and many more.

Through all these activities, CEMS aims to cultivate a knowledge transfer and ideas exchange culture, and to build a network of thought leaders and education influencers in the CEMS community. It is also important to nurture the CEMS students to be future thought leaders.