Themes + Priorities
Theme 3 : Future Oriented People & Operations
Building our culture , people , capabilities and resources to sustainably create opportunities and deliver on themes 1 and 2 , now and into the future . This includes attracting , developing and retaining outstanding staff , growing future focused capabilities , and exploring new revenue and financial models . We will experiment with new ways of working and collaborating , across the University and with alumni , Indigenous communities , and our partners locally and globally .
Alignment with UN PRME and Fulfilment of the SDGs
We will be enabled by adopting responsible and inclusive practices , as well as sustainable technologies and environments to be a Business School for a better future .
Priorities :
> Shape our workforce to meet our future needs > Develop our people and leaders to be innovative and collaborative > Facilitate equity , diversity and inclusion in the ways we work , teach and research
In addition to the development of our new strategy , other notable achievements since submission of our 2019 SIP include the following .
> Completion of an internal audit in October 2020 to identify Business School activities related to SDGs .
> Data were collected from a large array of internal sources , including monthly teaching and research newsletters , senior management quarterly reports , EDI and Indigenous engagement reports , accreditation and 2019 SIP reports , research output and income reports , and the BusinessThink online journal .
> Results showed that the Business School has made particularly strong contributions to the society and economy SDGs . Our strengths have been driven by our research centres ( particularly the Centre of Excellence in Population Ageing , CEPAR , and the Centre for Social Impact , CSI ) and forward-looking EDI policies .
> The wider UNSW community engages heavily in the biosphere SDGs , particularly through our Science , Engineering and Materials Science disciplines , and the Business School has opportunities to collaborate and contribute in distinctive ways .
> Audit results have informed preparation of our 2021 SIP report , as well as practical plans for the Business School and its staff , students , alumni , advisors and other stakeholders .
> An educational highlight is that the redesigned Bachelor of Commerce program includes three new , integrated firstyear courses that embed ethics , corporate responsibility and sustainability . These are COMM1100 : Business Decision Making ( Corporate responsibility ), COMM1110 : Evidence-based Problem Solving ( Ethical thinking ) and COMM1150 : Global Business Environments ( Social and environmental sustainability ). See Section 3.1 : Educational Frameworks .
> Another example , Ethics in Finance Modules have been written to help students develop a critical mindset towards recognising ethical dimensions in the work of business professionals . The self-paced modules are delivered through a combination of text , video , audio and self-conducted activities . See Section 3.2 : Educational Materials .
> A research highlight is that over 78 % of external grants secured by Business School researchers aligned to the SDGs in the period 2019-2021 . In addition , from January- October 2020 , 56 % of our 475 publications were aligned to the SDGs . See Section 4.6 .
> Looking to the future , the Business School ’ s Responsible Business Research Grants were inaugurated in 2020 through the collaboration of the Responsible Business Program , the Research Office and the Postgraduate Research Program . The thrust of the grants is to encourage new researchers to develop their interests responsibly by investigating how SDG themes can be integrated into their doctoral research topics . See Section 4.5 .
We are pleased to present our PRME SIP Report 2021 which we are confident shows , through a wide range of initiatives , that the Business School has continued to strengthen and embed our commitment towards the six PRME principles and SDGs .
Professor Chris Styles Dean , UNSW Business School
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