Lancaster University Management school has published its first Principles for Responsible Management Education (PRME) report, documenting its progress since committing to the PRME principles in 2019 and outlining the further actions it will take over the next 12-18 months.

PRME - a global, voluntary movement supported by the United Nations - aims to transform business and management education. Based around six core principles, PRME hopes to better equip business students - and our world’s next generation of leaders - to balance economic and sustainability goals by better aligning higher education institutions with the work of the UN Global Compact.

LUMS is one of more than 800 signatories worldwide to commit to the following PRME principles:

1. Purpose - We will develop the capabilities of students to be future generators of sustainable value for business and society at large and to work for an inclusive and sustainable global economy
2. Values - We will incorporate into our academic activities, curricula, and organisational practices the values of global social responsibility as portrayed in international initiatives such as the United Nations Global Compact
3. Method - We will create educational frameworks, materials, processes and environments that enable effective learning experiences for responsible leadership
4. Research - We will engage in conceptual and empirical research that advances our understanding about the role, dynamics, and impact of corporations in the creation of sustainable social, environmental and economic value
5. Partnership - We will interact with managers of business corporations to extend our knowledge of their challenges in meeting social and environmental responsibilities and to explore jointly effective approaches to meeting these challenges
6. Dialogue - We will facilitate and support dialogue and debate among educators, students, business, government, consumers, media, civil society organisations and other interested groups and stakeholders on critical issues related to global social responsibility and sustainability

Professor Claire Leitch, Interim Dean of LUMS, said: “As a leading and established Management School, responsibility is something that has always run through LUMS’ veins. However, PRME provides us with a helpful lens with which to review our activities – from teaching, research to wider societal engagement - to ensure that we can capture and explicitly articulate how we act as a responsible community, and see where we can deepen our focus to better equip our students to become inclusive and sustainable leaders of the future.

“This first report captures examples of our strong track record in delivering responsible research, teaching and engagement themed around the six Principles central to PRME, and also sets out areas of focus that we will build on in the very near future.”

LUMS’ report, openly accessible via PRME as well LUMS’ own website, concludes with a commitment to a 12-point action plan to be completed by 2023.

Pentland Centre Director, Professor Jan Bebbington, led the compilation of the report. She said: “As a relatively new arrival in Lancaster, this process has enabled me to learn a great deal about LUMS and I am impressed with the School’s long history of responsibility and sustainability research, teaching and outreach.

“Looking forward, the report serves as a useful tool to enable us to focus on concrete steps to communicate and improve upon this great work, including making responsibility a more explicit part of LUMS’ activities. As the Director of the Pentland Centre for Sustainability in Business I look forward to working with colleagues across the School to support and strengthen these activities in the future.”