XLRI has become the first B-school in the country to sign in favour of implementing the ‘Principles for Responsible Management Education (PRME),’ a UN-backed global initiative that promotes corporate social responsibility (CSR) and sustainability in business education.
The principles were unveiled by a group of scholars and leading academic organisations at the UN Global Compact Leaders Summit in July 2007.
The principles provide a framework for academic institutions to advance the broader cause of CSR and incorporate universal values into curricula and research. They help guide an institution’s effort to continuously improve curricula and research with regard to issues of corporate citizenship and sustainability.
In its first year of development, the initiative seeks to give adopting academic institutions a leading role, which is to define a set of good practices on implementation and reporting of the PRME. This would set the ground for a ‘global forum of responsible management education’ to be convened by the end of 2008. Business schools and academic institutions that have adopted the principles will be the main actors.
XLRI, besides being the first Indian B-school to commit to and endorse the principles of UN Global Compact and PRME, is, along with institutions such as Xinhua, the London School of Business, and Cornell, one of the 100 ‘early adopters.’
An international task force of 60 deans, university presidents and official representatives of leading business schools developed the PRME initiative.
The PRME is coordinated by the United Nations Global Compact, the Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business (AACSB International), the European Foundation for Management Development (EFMD), Aspen Institute’s Business and Society Program, the European Academy for Business in Society (EABIS), the Globally Responsible Leadership Initiative (GRLI) and Net Impact.
