Antwerp: The 9th & 10^th of November, over 40 deans and representatives of Benelux and France business schools, universities and their stakeholders, gathered at Antwerp Management School and endorsed the creation of an emerging France/Benelux PRME chapter. This Chapter will focus upon furthering sustainability within the educational sector through collaborative initiatives and sharing best practices.

This community is dedicated to educational and business changes toward a sustainable society under the umbrella of the United Nations-supported Principles for Responsible Management Education (PRME), an initiative of the UN Global Compact.

Jonas Haertle, Head of PRME, said “it is encouraging the PRME Chapter France & Benelux -- the 15th PRME Chapter -- launched this year,” adding that “PRME Chapters play an important role supporting responsible management education and helping achieve the Sustainable Development Goals in a regional context.”

“Given the participation of key stakeholders in France, Belgium and the Netherlands, our hope is that the newly launched Chapter will deepen the engagement and transformation in business and management education.”

Collaboration in the Chapter will allow the participating business schools and management-related higher education institutions to jointly respond to regional challenges regarding sustainable development. By engaging with broader stakeholders, assessing their own CSR efforts and by sharing and developing common resources for teaching, research and outreach, the schools will be better able to lead change and create social impact.

About PRME: The Principles for Responsible Management Education (PRME) is a United Nations-supported initiative founded in 2007 as a platform to raise the profile of sustainability in schools around the world, and to equip today's business students with the understanding and ability to deliver change tomorrow. As a voluntary initiative with over 680 signatories worldwide, PRME has become the largest organized relationship between the United Nations and management-related higher education institutions.

The launch meeting was jointly organized by representatives from each participating country. For France it is the Conference des Grandes Ecoles (CGE), for Belgium it is Antwerp Management School (AMS) and for The Netherlands it is Maastricht School of Management (MSM) and Amsterdam School of International Business (AMSIB) together

About CGE: a not-for-profit association of 223 public and private higher education institutions – engineering, business and other specialties schools - founded in 1973. CGE acts as a think tank, a do tank, a lobby and a collective label on post-master qualifications particularly.

"Facing the limits of our planet and the challenge of developing a prosperous humanity, business schools have more than ever the responsibility to develop research and to train future leaders to embark the Principle for Responsible Management Education (PRME) and Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) in all their actions. At CGE we believe that this can only be achieved by joining forces beyond our national boundaries. That is exactly the purpose of the France Benelux PRME chapter, I am glad and proud to launch today with our partners" said Denis Guibard, SD&CSR committee president.

About MSM: Founded in 1952, Maastricht School of Management (MSM) is one of the oldest and most international business schools in the Netherlands. MSM offers research-driven and internationally accredited MBA, MSc and MM degrees, as well as many shorter professional and executive courses. MSM sets great store in being an Advanced Signatory of the UN initiative, Principles for Responsible Management Education (PRME). MSM’s mission is to provide education and research for ethical management, inspiring leadership, innovative entrepreneurship and effective public policy, building on its unique history in working together with institutions in emerging economies for better global management. MSM subscribes to high ethical standards in business and strongly promotes corporate social responsibility (CSR) and sustainable development. CSR and business ethics are an integral part of MSM’s program offer – in both research and education.

About AMS:

Since 1959 Antwerp Management School (AMS) has been providing high quality management training and research which has given a powerful impulse to economic and social activities in Belgium and far beyond. AMS is an international Boutique Business School that helps its customers to create sustainable value by shaping talent into becoming Global Citizens. To accomplish this mission, AMS delivers state-of-the-art management knowledge, anchored in a business and organizational context. This is the fundamental basis on which we put 3 value pillars that we believe are needed to become Global Citizens: self-awareness, global perspective and societal consciousness.

“Blending the global agenda of “The Sustainable Development Goals” and the UN Principles for Responsible Management Education into a joint regional initiative with joint objectives enables us, as educational sector, to take our societal responsibility.

Through collaboration between business in France, The Netherlands and Belgium, we, educators and researchers, can contribute to fulfilling the UN’s “Sustainable Development Goals” agenda.

We will enable students to build sustainable mindsets much needed to achieve this transformation” said Dean Paul Matthyssens.

About AMSIB: AMSIB is situated in the business district of Amsterdam South East. The Amsterdam School of International Business (AMSIB) is home to 2,800 students and 150 faculty members. AMSIB provides students global business education.

‘It is our plight to leave our planet in good shape to our children so they can live a good and healthy life. Creating a sustainable tomorrow starts now, we have to educate our students with the knowledge and mindset so they can offer creative and responsible business solutions…’ said Dean John Sterk.

Participating schools and universities

Amsterdam Business School
Amsterdam School of International Business (AMSIB)
Antwerp Management School
Audencia Business School
Burgundy School of Business
Ecole de Management de Normandie
EDC Paris Business School
EM Strasbourg Business School
Emlyon Business School
ESSCA
Grenoble Ecole de Management
HEC-Ecole de Gestion de l'Université de Liège asbl
Iaelyon School of Management - University Jean Moulin
IESEG School of Management
KEDGE Business School
KU Leuven - Campus Brussels
KU Leuven - Faculty of Economics and Business
Louvain School of Management (LSM)
Maastricht School of Management
Rennes School of Business
Rotterdam School of Management BV
Telecom Ecole de Management
Tias Business School
Toulouse School of Management
United International Business Schools (UIBS)
Universiteit Antwerpen

Press contact AMS

Anja Tys
Corporate Marketing Communication Manager
anja.tys@ams.ac.be
T+32 3 265 47 33 of M+32 486 494 387