A Dearth of Data: Business Schools Seek to Address Social Impact—But How Are They Measuring Their Progress?

The Financial Times recently shined a light on the relative lack of meaningful data on business schools’ social impact initiatives. Without such data, they report, it is difficult for the schools to analyze, benchmark, and improve upon their efforts. Still, the Times acknowledges signs of progress in current aggregated reporting efforts. These may help move the business school community towards a more focused discussion on the outcomes of sustainability and social impact initiatives. 

Two organizations, Responsible Research for Business and Management (RRBM) and the United Nations Principles for Responsible Management Education (PRME) have taken a lead in calling upon business schools to update their curriculums to equip future leaders to take on climate change, inequality, and other societal and environmental challenges, reports the Times. The RRBM and others, including the Financial Times itself, have recently led competitions that highlight strong individual examples of ESG courses and research. The PMRE requests regular reports from members, although the responses are not easily measurable or comparable between schools. 

In September 2022, the Association to Advance the Collegiate Schools of Business (AACSB), a nonprofit organization that provides trustworthy accreditation, published its first outcomes-based report on business schools’ initiatives mapped to the UN’s 17 Sustainable Development Goals for 2030. The AACSB noted that just 74 schools, predominantly in the U.S. and the U.K., submitted reports, and few went beyond describing activities. Most submitted initiatives focused on quality education, decent work and economic growth, and gender equality. The AACSB described the report to the Financial Times by saying, “Schools are quite immature in their societal impact plans. Most…are just figuring out the areas in which they want to concentrate their efforts.” They continued, “[They] need to progress beyond a list of service activities.”

In contrast to other countries, in the U.K. all universities must provide case studies and research papers to demonstrate their actions and impact to the Research Excellence Framework (REF), reports the Times. The REF then provides an external assessment of each submission and assigns a grade to the universities based on the “originality, significance, and [rigor]” of the initiatives. However, critics of the REF note that the time and resources used for reporting social impact might be better spent on pursuing social impact. 

As we blogged in January, environmental and social conscientiousness is indeed becoming a bigger part of business school curriculums. This is necessary in part because corporations themselves value these things more and more, and students must understand the modern work culture. "Profit, equity, sustainability, and inclusion must co-exist," Federico Frattini, dean at MIP Politecnico di Milano told BusinessBecause. New reports bolster the importance of schools addressing social issues on campus too, lowering their carbon footprint and caring for students' mental health. 

BusinessBecause interviewed 17 business school deans about the key trends they expected would influence business education in 2022. The deans noted that, among other trends, climate change and social issues will play an important role in the future of MBA education. Specifically, they pointed to the need for schools to update their curriculums to better reflect businesses’ expanding views on creating value and the importance of considering their own operational sustainability.

Related:  MBA Curriculums Expand to Include Content in Environmental and Social Conscientiousness

Medical Students Push for Climate-Related Health Courses

Emory Medical School, at the behest of its student population, has formally incorporated the health impacts of climate change into the medical school curriculum. The addition, which follows many public health programs throughout the country, makes Emory the latest elite medical school to incorporate climate-related health courses. 

Emory’s decision—and the student pressure behind it—falls in line with an article published last fall in The Journal of Climate Change and Health. In the article, survey results (including responses from 600 students from 12 medical schools) showed that most medical students want to include climate change in their studies. 83.9 percent of respondents believed that climate change and its health effects should be included within the core medical school curriculum. 13 percent believed that their school currently provided adequate education on the topic. And just 6.3 percent of students said that they felt “very prepared” to discuss how climate change can affect health with a patient. 

Momentum around educating students on climate change is growing within the medical community. Emory joins Johns Hopkins University, Harvard, Yale, and the University of Washington among others. Johns Hopkins created its Environmental Health Institute in 2007, and in 2017 Columbia University unveiled its Global Consortium on Climate and Health Education. Columbia’s Consortium, which develops best practices for teaching climate health, has now grown to include 47 U.S. medical schools as members, as well as more than 240 schools of medicine, nursing, public health, dentistry, and veterinary medicine globally. 

Additionally, the American Medical Association has endorsed teaching medical students about the impacts of the climate on health. “All physicians, whether in training or in practice for many years, have to be able to assess for, manage, and effectively treat the health effects of climate change,” Lisa Howley, PhD and AAMC Senior Director of Strategic Initiatives and Partnerships said. 

The AAMC understands that there will be some resistance to climate health’s inclusion in already packed curriculums, and have highlighted a few ways climate change has been meaningfully integrated into current medical curriculums:

• At the University of Illinois College of Medicine (Urbana-Champaign), climate-related health risks have been incorporated into case scenarios to promote a physician’s consideration of the environment along with other contextual factors. The physician also learns to incorporate and consider not just medical treatment, but also environmental mitigation factors (masks, HVAC filters, etc.).

• At the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai (New York City), climate information has been integrated into existing medical content for first- and second-year students. For example, slides that cover Lyme disease also include information on how climate change impacts tick habitats. The information is designed to complement existing content.

• At the University of Colorado School of Medicine, an elective course for fourth-year students titled “Climate Medicine,” incorporates op-ed writing in addition to climate and health content.

• At the University of California San Francisco Medical School, medical students partner with nursing and dentistry students to create the Human Health and Climate Change group to facilitate educational forums and on-campus sustainability initiatives.