Community and University Partnerships for Change: University Presidents Panel

Higher education institutions (HEIs) around the world have a core mission to educate with many advocating that HEIs “generate social value” (McAdam & Debackere, 2017). Using the sustainable development goals (SDGs) as a lens to identify social problems and work towards contributing to solutions to the social challenges of our generation requires understanding how to change systems to spread social innovation across university campuses. The largest governing body for business school, The Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business (AACSB) International will implement social impact as one of the core accreditation criteria starting in June 2023.. The new standard under thought leadership, engagement and societal impact, the business accreditation standard 9 titled “Engagement and Societal Impact” and “Impact of scholarship” will be required for accreditation, ensuring that business schools embrace the role of business and societal impact. Another accrediting body ACBSP has embraced values based evaluation of university business schools to address “societal responsibilities and community involvement” (ACBSP, 2022). Join three university Presidents as they share how their individual institution is contributing to societal impact through their cross campus initiatives on systems change, social innovation for sustainable development.