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.