UniSA Business

UniSA Business, University of South Australia

Since our 2018-2019 Principles for Responsible Management Education (PRME) Sharing Information on Progress (SIP) report, the world has changed in ways we could not have imagined. Amidst the uncertainties and challenges caused by Covid-19, UniSA Business has continued to strive in its endeavours as a leading business school, national and internationally. Our continued outstanding achievements in teaching and research have been recognised through the award of the highest level of recognition within the globally significant Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business (AACSB) and EFMD Quality Improvement System (EQUIS) accreditations; through the Excellence in Research Assessment process with respect to both impact and quality; and through the success of our alumni.

UniSA Business supports the aspirations of the University of South Australia’s key planning documents, including Enterprise 25 (E25) as well as the Academic Enterprise Plan (AEP); the Aboriginal Research Strategy; the Aboriginal Employment Strategy; and the Equity, Diversity and Inclusion Framework. To address the unique circumstances and aspriations for Business degree education, UniSA Business will use its own Academic Unit Plan to guide the delivery of key processes operating across the University and continuous improvements in program learning outcomes. This includes the Curriculum Innovation Process, the Assurance of Learning Process, the achievement of research metrics, and the delivery of Scale and Focus research concentrations.

There is much to celebrate with respect to UniSA Business’ recent successes, but there remains scope for further improvement. We will continue to adapt to a rapidly changing external environment that includes, the short, medium and long term impacts of COVID-19 – including the effect of international border closures; an increasingly competitive operating environment; changes to Australian Government support for domestic students and their learning; and, a rapidly changing technological envelope that calls on staff to engage with new skills, abilities and thinking. We will also continue to acknowledge the social responsibility of business in its own business processes and teaching. In particular, we will continue to imbue awareness of ethical considerations of business decision making in our degree programs.

Our report includes inspirational international students and research, innovative virtual international experiences, unique mentoring programs, an ambitious target for carbon neutrality, and an exemplar course that includes all 17 UN SDG’s. There is much to be celebrated in this report.

UniSA Business can look forward to a future enriched by the potential to improve the quality and impact of our teaching, as well as new ways of enhancing student access to our curriculum. The future offers the prospect of new partnerships that will add to students’ experience while generating pathways to share our expertise with the world – stronger employment outcomes for our students and positive business outcomes for businesses through greater integration with our stakeholders locally, nationally and globally to drive transformation in business and society.

The United Nations (UN) Principles for Responsible Management Education (PRME) provides a framework for us to continue to strengthen the alignment of this work with the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). PRME, to which UniSA Business has been a signatory since 2011, serves to demonstrate the importance of our deep commitment to ethics, social responsibility and sustainability and to educating students who can go on to be responsible global citizens.

We are pleased to submit our Sharing Information on Progress (SIP) report as a statement of our commitment to UN PRME. The following pages detail our progress in implementing the six Principles and SDGs for 2020-2021. We understand that our own organisational practices should serve as an example of the values and attitudes we convey to our students, and these have been embedded throughout our reporting against the six PRME principles.

Our Sharing Information on Progress report also sets our sights firmly on the future as we embark on the period of transformational change alongside a time of innovation as we respond to the challenges presented by COVID-19.

We hope this report signals our aim to further engage and facilitate development across our global network.

Professor Andrew Beer
Executive Dean
Business UniSA