Managing education responsibly

B-schools and universities worldwide need to adopt the Principles of Responsible Management Education and adapt their curricula and teaching methodologies to it .

Responsible management education aims to create educational framework, processes and environment that enable effective learning experiences for responsible leadership. It also engages in conceptual and empirical research that advances the understanding about the role, dynamics and impact of institutions in the creation of sustainable social, environmental and economic value.

All of these are integral to the Principles of Responsible Management Education (PRME). The PRME were developed in 2007 by an international task force of official representatives of leading business schools and academic institutions. The idea of developing a principlebased global engagement platform for academic institutions follows from a recommendation by all academic stakeholders of the United Nations Global Compact.

In the current academic environment, corporate responsibility and sustainability have entered, but not yet become embedded in the mainstream of business-related education. The PRME are therefore a timely global call for business schools and universities worldwide to gradually adapt their curricula, research, teaching methodologies and institutional strategies to new business challenges and opportunities.

Therefore in the quest for implementing PRME each institution will have to acquire a unique 'institutional equity' with all its incumbent attributes such as excellent curriculum, infrastructure, corporate internship programme, academia-industry interface and dedicated efforts towards academic research and knowledge development aimed at achieving corporate responsibility and sustainability. Institutions own practices should serve as examples of the values and attributes they wish to convey to their students.