Principle 2 - Values
We will incorporate into our academic activities and curricula the values of global social responsibility as portrayed in international initiatives such as the United Nations Global Compact.
Our academics are engaged in research across the business school which has a sustainable and inclusive focus. They work with industry partners on issues relating to global social responsibility and what is learned from this is incorporated into our teaching programmes, ensuring value for the triangle of academic staff, students and business partners.
A Business School where students, staff and industry partners work together in a socially responsible way:
- The School is committed to and promotes equality and diversity, and regularly monitors gender and ethnic balance and, to this end, applied for the Equality Challenge Unit ‘Athena SWAN’ Charter which now recognises work undertaken to address gender equality more broadly, covering professional and support roles and for trans staff and students. Strathclyde Business School won the Athena SWAN Bronze Award.
- SBS’s student-led group Strathclyde Business Network – a voluntary network of current UG and PGT students - organised the Glasgow Business Summit 2017. The theme of the Summit was “Digital and Ethical Leaders of the 21st Century” and over 300 students came along to learn from and meet over 25 corporate speakers, including Jim Duffy, Co- founder and Former CEO Entrepreneurial Spark; Gillian Docherty, CEO, The Data Lab; Colin Cook, Digital Director, The Scottish Government; and Nick Kuenssberg, Chairman, Social Investment Scotland.
- Professor Michael Kelly remains a champion of Strathclyde Business School. The School appointed Professor Kelly, who is a local UN Global Compact champion, Emeritus Chair of the Living Foundation UK and former Director of Corporate Social Responsibility at KPMG, as a Visiting Professor in 2007.
- For the academic year 2018/19, the Department of Accounting and Finance incorporated sustainability into teaching programmes using the emerging theoretical concepts and global initiatives on social and environmental issues. The fourth year class ‘Sustainability Accounting: Theory and Practice’ incorporates the response of accounting to the sustainability agenda. The class deals with the impact on accounting by the emerging topic of sustainable development practices as the goal of society as demonstrated in the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) to 2030.
- The University of Strathclyde has been at the forefront of the innovative and ground-breaking FinTech movement for a sustainable transformation of finance for the better. In September 2017, the Department of Accounting and Finance launched the UK’s first FinTech Masters programme at Strathclyde Business School. The intensive, 12-month programme combines a rigorous academic curriculum with the entrepreneurial and innovative elements of FinTech, including financial method, data analytics, regulation, and the applications of technologies such as blockchain and distributed ledgers. Since then, the University’s Centre for Financial Regulation & Innovation (CeFRI) has won the Education Award at the 2018 Inspiring City Awards hosted by The Herald and Glasgow City Chamber of Commerce.
- Students on the Global Energy Management degree had an industry seminar on global energy trends from Hadrien Collineau and Max Crawford of Wood Mackenzie. Max Crawford is a former graduate of the programme who undertook an internship with Wood Mackenzie as part of the MSc GEM programme.
- There is ongoing work in the Department of Economics to create a VIP (Vertically Integrated Project) programme at Undergraduate level in poverty and inequality.
- In 2018/2019 Dr Sreevas Sahasranamam from the Hunter Centre for Entrepreneurship organised the VIP Dragon’s Den event at the annual Strathclyde VIP (Vertically Integrated Projects) research conference, in which students pitch for research funding for projects that target Sustainable Development Goals. Students are required to estimate the potential impact reach and significance of their research.
- In 2019/2020 Dr Julie McFarlane (Hunter Centre for Entrepreneurship) led the Management Development Programme internship pathway where over 200 students learn about the role of corporate social responsibility and are equipped with tools to evaluate social responsibility in the organisations in which they intern.
- The first year class ‘Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice’ incorporates a social and environmental entrepreneurship angle for students to better understand the social responsibility entrepreneurs have.
- The OR Society, the UK-wide learned society in the field of Operational Research, announced that Connor Wilson (Management Science alumni) was selected as one of the joint winners of the May Hicks award for the year 2016. Connor graduated from MSc Business Analysis and Consulting with distinction in 2016, and is currently a consultant at BSM Consultants in Ontario, Canada. The award is given annually to the best industry-based dissertation project within a UK Master’s programme in Management Science. Connor’s project, titled “Uncertainty Analysis of Burner Zone Stoichiometry and Nitric Oxide Emissions for Doosan Babcock’s Clean Combustion Test Facility”, provided the client, Doosan Babcock, with extensive analysis of uncertainty on key engineering parameters in an extremely user- friendly manner.
- A new THE University Impact ranking (April 2019) focused on institutional impact on society using the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) as a framework. Around 500 institutions were ranked globally and overall Strathclyde was ranked 50th. We were ranked 9th out of 226 institutions for SDG 12 Responsible Consumption and Production, 12th out of 257 institutions for SDG 13 Climate Action and joint 17th out of 274 institutions for SDG 11 Peace, Justice and Strong Institutions.
