The noticeable role of CEEMAN at the 3rd PRME Global Forum in Rio

The 3rd Global Forum for Responsible Management Education that took place on 14-15 June 2012 in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, in conjunction with the United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development (Rio+20 Earth Summit) and the Global Compact Corporate Sustainability Forum, was organized by the PRME Secretariat of the UN Global Compact Office, with the active support of PRME participant institutions, the PRME Steering Committee and strategic partners.

Through the Rio Declaration on the Contribution of Higher Education Institutions and Management Schools to The Future We Want: A Roadmap for Management Education to 2020, 300 leading business school and university representatives worldwide agreed on a number of concrete commitments to action.

Outcomes of the Third Global Forum for Responsible Management Education include:

• Comprehensive Anti-Corruption Guidelines for Curriculum Change, a Report on Fighting Poverty through Management Education: Challenges, Opportunities, and Solutions, and a Gender Equality Global Resource Repository, all developed by issue area Working Groups of the Principles for Responsible Management Education (PRME), an initiative sponsored by the UN Global Compact. The 50+20 Agenda - Management Education for the World was also officially launched at the Global Forum.
• In addition, an Inspirational Guide for the Implementation of PRME: Placing sustainability at the heart of management education, details real world examples of how management schools and universities, globally, undertake change processes based on the framework provided by the Six Principles of PRME.

The Report on Fighting Poverty through Management Education: Challenges, Opportunities, and Solutions, prepared by CEEMAN-led PRME Working Group on Poverty as a Challenge to Management Education is based on CEEMAN/PRME global survey, which collected responses from 70 countries. It also introduces a Collection of Best Practices and Inspirational Solutions as a useful learning tool and interactive platform for further experience sharing. 

These two documents were also presented at the Global Compact Rio+20 Corporate Sustainability Forum (session Foundations for Sustainability Leadership: Responsible Management and Leadership Education) by Milenko Gudić, Managing Director, IMTA, CEEMAN, who said: “Although one of the Report findings indicates that business school faculty and administrators perceive the market/student attitude as a barrier to including poverty-related issues into management education, our personal and institutional experience contradicts this. Businesses are taking lead in identifying business case for tapping into low-income markets and working together with other stakeholders. New generation of students also demonstrate higher aspirations regarding their contribution to dealing with the pressing social issues, as well as higher expectations regarding the role of business in society. In order to build on this, business schools need to get closer to their stakeholders, listen to them, learn from them and collaborate with them.” Read the Outcomes of the Rio+20 CSF.

The Inspirational Guide for the Implementation of PRME: Placing sustainability at the heart of management education features 63 case stories from PRME signatory schools, representing 25 countries across Asia, Oceania, Latin America, USA and Canada, Europe, the Middle East and Africa. IEDC-Bled School of Management and nine other CEEMAN members are among these inspirational examples of applying sustainability principles in their educational institutions.

At the closing session of the 3^rd Global Forum, Prof. Danica Purg, President of CEEMAN and IEDC-Bled School of Management, Slovenia reflected on the outcomes of the 3rd Global Forum, and invited 300 present professors and deans to the 2013 PRME Summit which will be held on 20-21 June in Bled, Slovenia. Prof. Purg explained that the focus of the Summit will be on action and on learning from best practices. “We have heard a comment coming from the corporate world that academia might be afraid of action. This certainly has not been the case in the transition and dynamically changing environments, where business schools have acted as important change agents in the unprecedented process of economic restructuring and social transformation. All those who come to the PRME 2013 Summit in Bled, Slovenia will have an opportunity to benefit from vast and highly relevant experience of CEEMAN member schools,” said Prof. Purg.