EDITOR’S LETTER
The importance of INCLUSION
EDITORIAL Head of editorial Colette Doyle c.doyle@amba-bga.com Content editor Tim Banerjee Dhoul t.dhoul@amba-bga.com Art editor Yvette Beattie Sub-editor Heather Ford Insight, content and PR manager Ellen Buchan e.buchan@amba-bga.com CORPORATE Head of commercial relations Max Braithwaite m.braithwaite@amba-bga.com
Incorporating and promoting diversity in its many forms is a key consideration for business schools
P
erhaps this issue should be subtitled, to paraphrase US psychiatrist M Scott Peck, “Sharing our similarities, celebrating our differences”. Our cover story for May is a roundtable debate featuring a panel of international business schools who give insightful examples of how they are moving the DE&I (diversity, equity and inclusion) agenda forward. Some of the main findings include the way that DE&I cannot just be an ‘add-on’ and needs to be incorporated into a business-as-usual process; it has to be part of the core academic workload, as with research or teaching, and have dedicated funding that can be used to invest in diversity research or modules for students. Intersectionality is also crucial. The way forward is to consider how all aspects of diversity and demographics are integrated in business and understand how they’re connected. Another pivotal factor involves thinking about how to ensure academic assignments have a meaningful impact on the world. Schools can encourage students to work on projects with charities committed to equity and diversity, as well as sustainability and social justice, so that they feel they’re making a difference. It’s also important to remember that diversity can take many forms, including neurodivergence, disability and gender identity issues, as well as involving those coming from different religious backgrounds or who have difficult socio-economic circumstances. To ensure that DE&I policies are properly implemented, schools are putting together means to enforce their regulation. These include 24/7 platforms where any student who experiences discrimination can report it anonymously, safe in the knowledge that each case will be assessed and addressed. While DE&I isn’t solely about achieving gender diversity, it is a large part of it and requires the efforts of multiple stakeholders, with pertinent plans for collaboration and execution. Our interview with Sherif Kamel, the dean of the School of Business at the American University in Cairo (AUC), builds on this idea. AUC won AMBA & BGA’s culture, diversity and inclusion award 2023 for its Women on Boards Observatory, which aims to boost female representation on company boards and create a new narrative on equality across the Middle East & North Africa. Enjoy the issue – we look forward to meeting as many of you as possible at our global conference, held later this month in the Spanish city of Seville, and hearing about your own endeavours in business education.
Head of marketing and communications Leonora Clement
Senior marketing executive Edward Holmes
Head of IT and data management Jack Villanueva
Head of events Carolyn Armsby
HR and employer relations manager Aarti Bhasin Finance and commercial Director Catherine Walker
Colette Doyle , Editor, Ambition
THIS MONTH’S CONTRIBUTORS
Chief executive officer Andrew Main Wilson
Executive assistant to the CEO Amy Youngs a.youngs@amba-bga.com ACCREDITATION ENQUIRIES accreditation@amba-bga.com
PIERRE CASSE
JOHN FINCH
LYNDA HOLT
ELNURA IRMATOVA
SHERIF KAMEL
JACQUES THÉBAULT
ALISON TRUELOVE
EMIKO TSUYUKI
Copyright 2023 by Association of MBAs and Business Graduates Association ISSN 2631-6382 All rights reserved. Material may not be reproduced without the permission of the publisher. While we take care to ensure that editorial is independent, accurate, objective and relevant for our readers, AMBA accepts no responsibility for reader dissatisfaction rising from the content of this publication. The opinions expressed and advice given are the views of individual commentators and do not necessarily represent the views of AMBA. Whenever an article in this publication is placed with the financial support of an advertiser, partner or sponsor, it will be marked as such. AMBA makes every opportunity to credit photographers but we cannot guarantee every published use of an image will have the contributor’s name. If you believe we have omitted a credit for your image, please email the editor.
Ambiti n
Ambition | MAY 2023 | 7
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