On March 22nd 2024, “AACSB International Societal Impact Seminar” was successfully held in Room 108, Block A, Building of SFB, Shanghai Normal University (Xuhui Campus). This one-day seminar was delivered by Dr. Geoff Perry (AACSB Executive Vice President, Global Chief Membership Officer and Managing Director, Asia Pacific) to 60+ SFB faculty and staff members, with a variety of approaches including compounding of theories, case studies, group discussions and so on. Assoc. Prof. Sixue JIA (Director of SFB Accreditation Office) served as the moderator for the Seminar.
At the beginning of the Seminar, Assoc. Prof. Sixue JIA introduced the distinguished guests from AACSB International: the speaker Dr. Geoff Perry, Ms. Liyan Chen (AACSB Senior Accreditation and Member Services Manager), and Mr. Guodong Xu (AACSB Regional Head, East Asia). Next, the moderator briefly looked back upon the progress SFB has made along its four-year journey pursuing AACSB accreditation, and explained the significance of this Seminar on the topic "societal impact".
Followingly, Professor Wen YUAN (President of SHNU) delivered a welcome speech. On behalf of SHNU, Professor Wen YUAN warmly welcomed all guests and briefly introduced development of SHNU, SHNU's extensive international cooperation and exchanges, as well as its important international cooperation institutions. Prof. Wen YUAN mentioned that SHNU attaches great importance to Sino-international cooperation, and enrolls international students from 65 countries and regions around the globe. She pointed out that SHNU has given SFB extensive support to seek AACSB International Accreditation, and she hoped that along SFB's journey seeking AACSB International Accreditation, the school could align with world's first-class business school philosophies, governance models and talent development methods, and constantly improve its level of internationalization.
In addition, Prof. Wen YUAN emphasized on the significance for SFB to continuously enhance its societal impact against the backdrop of intense global climate change, fast-developing artificial intelligence, rapid industrial changes and challenges to globalization. She expected that SFB could embrace changes, address challenges, undertake greater social responsibility, so as to continuously enhance its societal impact. After the welcome speech, Prof. Wen YUAN handed over a customized SHNU medallion to Dr. Geoff Perry as a present.
As an important seminar delivered by AACSB International, this Seminar covers a wide range of aspects concerning “societal impact”. To start, Dr. Geoff Perry introduced AACSB International Accreditation in detail. According to the latest statistics, only 6.7% of business schools around the world are AACSB-accredited; in China (including Hong Kong SAR, Macao SAR, and Taiwan Region), there are 170 AACSB member schools/institutions, among which 90 are AACSB-accredited, and 44 are in the process seeking AACSB Accreditation. Mr. Guodong Xu added that there are 49 AACSB-accredited schools/institutions in Mainland China; and in Mainland China's featured “‘Five-Aspect’ Higher Education Quality Assurance System”, “international assessment (joint accreditation)” is one of the “Five Aspects”, therefore the pursuit of AACSB International Accreditation could effectively support higher education institutions in Mainland China to improve their “‘Five-Aspect’ Higher Education Quality Assurance System”.
Afterwards, Dr. Geoff Perry explained how “societal impact” is related to four of “2020 AACSB Business Accreditation Standards”, and divided the attending participants into six groups and organized group discussions. During the Seminar, each group has identified its focus area, composed an impact statement, and considered contents in daily researches and teaching work that are related to and can help to facilitate the selected focus area.
Based on contents related to "societal impact" in course delivery, researches and other work tasks, participating faculty and staff members engaged in lively discussions. Six groups of participants selected the following 6 focus areas respectively: global vision, supporting SMEs to develop, advancing the "zero carbon" goal, promoting sustainable economic growth, advising governments in better decision-making, and assisting communities to develop better. In addition, participants provided suggestions for focus areas their groups had selected, taking into account their own specialty fields. After discussions for each task, representatives of each group shared their findings passionately with Dr. Geoff Perry, and had in-depth exchanges with Dr. Geoff Perry on selected focus areas, impact statements, KPIs developed for each task, etc.
When the Seminar was approaching the end, Dr. Geoff Perry concluded, “‘societal impact’ does not mean we can get instant results for every effort we've made; maybe we can do something today, and the impact happens some day in the future. As long as a school sets up goals regarding 'societal impact' based on its mission, and consistently measures the progress in a scientific way, it will be able to effectively track its improvements regarding 'societal impact', so as to contribute its efforts to building a better world."
At the end of the Seminar, Professor Jianghui LIU (Dean of SFB) delivered a thank-you speech to Dr. Geoff Perry and his team. In the speech, Prof. Jianghui LIU expressed heartfelt gratitude to the three distinguished guests from AACSB International, for having presented SFB faculty and staff members with forefront insights and international-advanced practices on “societal impact”. Following that, Prof. Jianghui LIU succinctly introduced SFB's initiatives and progresses to date concerning "societal impact", and expressed that SFB still has a long way to go in achieving positive societal impact. Nevertheless, he believed that having attended this Seminar, SFB faculty and staff members will be further inspired on the strategies, tactics, steps and methodologies in making positive societal impact, and that SFB will embark on the journey of contributing to the world and making positive societal impact with larger and firmer strides.
After the “International Societal Impact Seminar”, Dr. Geoff Perry, Ms. Liyan Chen and Mr. Guodong XU engaged in smaller-scale exchanges with SFB leadership and accreditation team. Professor Hongjun ZHAO (Associate Dean of SFB) reported SFB's initiatives and current achievements regarding "societal impact", and Dr. Geoff Perry provided professional suggestions and insights. Nextly, Ms. Liyan Chen gave feedback on SFB's initial Self-Evaluation Report (iSER) referring to comments from AACSB Initial Accreditation Committee (IAC). At the end of the exchange session, Associate Professor Chunli ZHANG (Secretary of CPC SFB Committee) expressed sincere gratitude on behalf of SFB to Dr. Geoff Perry and his team, and indicated that both this Seminar and the exchange session were fruitful and rewarding, which will definitely advance SFB's work in composing of progress report and making continuous improvement.
After one day of learning, discussions and exchanges, AACSB International Societal Impact Seminar has come to a successful conclusion. This Seminar has deepened SFB faculty and staff members’ understanding on the notion of "societal impact", which is an important concept in AACSB Standards; has helped SFB faculty and staff members to systematically identify possible focus areas for SFB and to organize their research and teaching work; and has laid a more solid foundation for SFB to better pursue AACSB International Accreditation.
(Contribution & Photography: SFB International Accreditation Office)
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