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The Best MBA Programs for Social Impact

For companies, the most important thing is the money they earn, or return. Still, it is now believed that there are other equally important factors, namely the social and environmental impact of businesses.

A clean capitalism magazine, Corporate Knights, has published a ranking of social change that MBA programs are making called 2017 Better World MBA.

The best school in the rankings was The University of Exeter Business School, and the second and third places were taken by Schulich School (York University) and Warwick Business School, respectively. Fourteen US educational institutions have found their spots in the top 40 of the rankings, the most prominent of them being Duquesne University with a 5th place.

The methodology behind these rankings consists of three parts. 30% is given to curriculum (with the focus on courses having to do with environmentalism), 20% is reserved for school-based centers dedicated to social and environmental impact, and the last 50% accounts for academic research, Poets and Quants reports.

Sustainability: The New Trend?

Anyway, what results have these rankings yielded? Corporate Knights say that, according to their research, the readers can see how universities and business schools teach their students to make environmentalism a part of their future profession.

According to Giselle Weybrecht, author of a sustainability-based monograph, the focus of business education should be shifted to social and environmental problems, making the students solve immediate problems.

Several business schools started working together with companies to find solutions for achieving sustainability and mitigating the social and environmental influence of businesses. For instance, Copenhagen Business School has collaborated with a large European music event to find new solutions in the area of sustainability.

Making the Curriculum More Environmentally Focused

At some business schools, working together with businesses is not enough: they have also started courses focused on ecological and social problems. For example, the Rotterdam School of Management offers two new courses: Climate Change Strategy and Sustainability Leadership.

Several universities, especially American ones, have taken part in non-profit initiatives, where students act as non-voting members of a nonprofit board program to learn sustainability. At Berkeley Haas, courses on social impact of businesses are free and can be found online. These courses have already been used by students from all over the world.

The Corporate Knights have found that more and more business schools have started focusing on teaching their students to focus on the social and environmental factors of leadership and management. This may prove to be of high importance to businesses all over the world, considering the newest trends.

Learn more about The Best MBA Programs for Social Impact on MBA25 event in Warsaw!

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