Marian Garcia: “I think we need to make the distinction between meaningful partnerships and other forms of co-operation. For example, we have lots of established relationships around student and staff mobility, as well those related to research. These are valuable, of course, but they tend to focus on recruitment, whereas meaningful partnerships are those that develop beyond this. They are about capacity-building, how we can collaborate and strengthen our ability to share what we have developed with other communities.” If you could reallocate 20 per cent of your budget, where would you invest to future-proof your school? Luigi Gangitano: “I would explore alternative ways of teaching. Right now, AI is simplifying many tasks, as any form of automation does. But learning is not about removing challenges; it’s about friction and taking the time to think things through. I would invest in research on how we can build AI automation into our own pedagogical and subject-matter experience so that it enhances learning, rather than simply helping to solve problems.”
environmental impact. AI is something that is at the forefront of everyone’s mind, but we still seem to be ignoring its environmental impact at the moment.” Tiago Botelho: “We know AI consumes a lot of energy and creates a lot of C02 emissions, so we highlight that students must use it in a sustainable way. Of course, acting in a sustainable way has an embedded cost and people need to accept that cost or the desired behavioural change will not occur. So, for example, our university’s school of environmental science comes in and helps us develop students’ understanding of how the skills they learn can help them transform organisations from within.” What role should partnerships – with industry, edtech, or other institutions – play in building resilience? Marian Garcia: “Partnerships with corporates are critical. I would say we have a duty to partner with corporates and bring those insights into the classroom. Aston, for example, is one of the leading business schools for Innovate UK Knowledge Transfer Partnerships. These projects [designed to connect businesses with academic expertise] are partially funded by the government and cover our entire portfolio.” José Martínez-Sierra: “We must think where we are stronger than companies, or at least where we have a competitive advantage. From there, the partnerships will be more stable and more fruitful. We must also partner with the disparate departments of our university – business schools that have a strong university at their side have a distinct advantage.” Richard Hodgett: “You need to be strategic about partnerships rather than thinking about them purely in transactional terms. What we’re trying to scale up at the moment, for example, is developing collaborative online international learning modules with other universities.” Tiago Botelho: “Partnerships are also about understanding where one plus one becomes equal to more than two. We are always actively looking to see who can help us to make a programme more successful because this, in turn, amplifies our impact within the region.” Donald Lancaster: “On the MBA programme, we have a business support group populated by alumni who are senior leaders in business. At the university level, there is Green Futures Solutions, which involves talking to companies about long-term sustainability initiatives and providing input from our climate scientists. We also have an interesting international executive MBA programme in defence and space that’s in partnership with Adelaide University in Australia and Carnegie Mellon University in the US.”
34 Ambition • ISSUE 4 • 2026
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