In an experience that stands in contrast to many, dean of the School of Economics and Business at the University of Ljubljana Metka Tekavčič pointed out that Slovenia’s history has meant that equality of access is built into the country’s culture. “Gender diversity is embedded in our culture,” she said, adding that it is the “same with [diversity of] economic background”. Tekavčič advised that her country’s principal EDI challenge has been “taking the best from east and west” to build an integrative society, as Slovenia has sought to transition from providing an all-purpose socialist education to specialised and internationalised programmes. There are so many aspects within the topic of EDI that it was no surprise to hear about a wide variety of initiatives and lessons learned from the panel. Tekavčič talked about the success of ‘I am remarkable’ workshops that draw on alumni to promote positive role models. Tsuyuki, on the other hand, described how shifting classes online – where students can access subtitles – during the pandemic had improved the integration of students with hearing difficulties. Olazábal and Singh touched on the common theme of the role of schools in advancing EDI across the business world. “We have to show them that if you have diversity, you will be more competitive,” Singh remarked. He described how Athena’s internship programme deliberately rotates the type of person selected for an individual company to showcase the abilities of students from various genders and backgrounds, as well as of those with special needs. Olazábal, meanwhile, pointed to the value of recent Miami Herbert research demonstrating that companies with good EDI strategies are better perceived by consumers. Such findings, according to Olazábal, help
Miami Herbert is well positioned to advance EDI, in the eyes of Olazábal, because it can leverage its geographic location in what is sometimes termed a ‘majority-minority’ city. Olazábal noted that 44 per cent of the students and faculty at her school are from underrepresented groups and said this figure was double the national average among AACSB business schools in the US. It’s a different story in Japan, where Chuo Business School dean Emiko Tsuyuki was quick to concede that “diversity is relatively low”. One often-reported challenge for the East Asian nation relates to gender equality and Tsuyuki described the paucity of female leaders and faculty in business education, remarking that her own presence as a female dean makes her “a special case”. In her opinion, “[women] don’t have the same confidence and chances” and it’s the responsibility of business schools to provide opportunities for female students that helps them develop the self-assurance required to manage others and take on leadership roles. Meanwhile, Aditya Singh, director at Athena School of Management in Mumbai, noted that “India is one of the most diverse countries in the world right now” and that “context is key” when talking about EDI challenges. Singh then identified two challenges that his institution faces - “diversity of background” and “diversity of thought”. Diversity of background relates to the need to address the traditional dominance of men from backgrounds in engineering, termed ‘graduate engineer males’ (GEM), in cohorts, Singh explained. Diversity of thought relates, instead, to the need to ensure that classes contain non-conformists and people who aren’t willing to simply agree with everything that is put forward by professors and instructors.
Institutions from Slovenia, India, Japan and the US shared their ideas on advancing EDI
26 | Ambition JULY/AUGUST 2023
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