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. demic Committee and General Assembly for further consideration.

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.

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.