PRME Partner Interviews

PRME Partner Interviews: Pernilla Bolander, PRME and Stockholm School of Economics

Interview with Pernilla Bolander, PRME Director.

BI is a member of the United Nations Principles for Responsible Management Education (PRME), a global network of more than 800 business schools committed to advancing responsible management education (RME)—a key element of BI’s strategy.

PRME

Through this interview series, we introduce PRME partner schools from around the world and explore their approaches to responsible management education. The series aims to raise awareness of the PRME network within BI, showcase how peer institutions are embedding responsible management education in their teaching and research, and support BI’s internationalisation by fostering connections with business schools across different regions.

Interview with Pernilla Bolander, PRME Director 

Pernilla Bolander

  1. How does your school work with Responsible Management Education (RME)?
    Since becoming a signatory of PRME in 2013, Stockholm School of Economics (SSE) has worked actively on embedding sustainable development, ethical decision-making, and responsible leadership across curricula, research activities, campus operations and collaborations with society. For example, there are ongoing efforts to embed responsible management into teaching practices and course structures through implementation of our values and educational mission FREE. The acronym FREE represents four attributes we expect our graduates to demonstrate; they should be Fact-based, Reflective, Empathetic as well as Entrepreneurial and responsible. Examples of concrete actions are the addition of two mandatory courses on global challenges in the Bachelor program in Business & Economics as well as the implementation of a Sustainability Track that students from all our master programs can apply to. SSE is also working on integrating sustainable development more explicitly in all programs and courses and actively supports faculty to this end.
  2. What initiatives or practices have been particularly effective?
    The combination of top-down and bottom-up initiatives. For SSE, responsible management is a value-based commitment, but it is also part of the school’s strategic positioning. Consistent SDG integration strengthens SSE’s position as a competitive and forward-looking international business school. In line with this, all faculty are required to provide information on which SDGs their courses address and how. At the same time, SSE provides resources and support for faculty who strive to increase SDG integration in their courses, building on the idea that even if we all are not specialists in sustainability, we can all become sustainable development generalists.
  3. What advice would you give to other schools seeking to strengthen their work with RME?
    A core idea behind PRME is to build a strong community of institutions that share the common strive to advance the sustainability agenda. There is a large knowledge repository, there are events to participate in, and there are local chapters through which schools in different regions can collaborate and share knowledge. Becoming a Champion can accelerate RME work even further by giving opportunities to work collaboratively with thought- and action-leaders on projects that have the potential to deliver scalable impact.