Accreditation & Ranking Impact with Financial Times

As the world changes rapidly, higher education is under growing pressure to evolve. Accreditation bodies and ranking institutions are increasingly recognizing the need to prioritize societal impact, social responsibility, and the holistic skills students need to lead in a complex world. PRME launched a new webinar series to explore these changes, bringing together leaders from ranking and accreditation bodies, as well as PRME Signatory institutions to hear their firsthand experience.

Introduction

The third session of our Accreditation & Ranking Impact series featured a dynamic panel exploring how Financial Times (FT) is evolving its business school rankings to better reflect sustainability, societal impact, and responsible leadership, and what that means for institutions around the world.

Speakers included:

Andrew Jack, Global Education Editor, Financial Times

Matthew Gitsham, Professor and Director, Hult International Business School

Meredith Storey, Senior Manager, PRME Secretariat

As institutions navigate a growing set of global challenges and rising expectations from stakeholders, the session offered valuable insights into how rankings and reporting frameworks, when intentionally aligned, can drive innovation, elevate visibility, and support meaningful change in management education.

Metrics Motivate, But Community Drives Change

Andrew Jack emphasized that ranking criteria are evolving not to add burden, but to highlight practices that matter—like Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) integration, soft skill development, and sustainability impact. When these efforts are measured, they become easier to prioritize and institutionalize.

At the same time, panelists stressed that quantitative metrics alone aren’t enough. Creating a community of practice, like PRME offers, is essential to deepen learning, exchange solutions, and ensure institutions are growing from shared experience, not just scorecards.

“Certainly what we try to do with rankings is not to impose additional bureaucracy, but to leverage either existing metrics or encourage the use of other metrics that would be more generally valuable across business school universities.” – Andrew Jack

PRME Creates the Conditions for Quality and Visibility

Meredith Storey highlighted PRME’s role in helping higher education institutions lay the groundwork for what rankings now recognize as excellence. Through its programmes, reporting tools, and community, PRME empowers faculty and schools to take intentional steps toward embedding the SDGs and responsible management in their work.

“With PRME, what we hope to do is to create the opportunities for those roots to grow… so that when it comes time for accreditation or rankings, there is quality to be measured.” – Meredith Storey

Reporting Must Be Streamlined and Inclusive

Matthew Gitsham discussed the challenges of measuring sustainability and impact in ways that reflect real practice. While collecting ESG data is increasingly important, it must be balanced with nuance—capturing implicit, discipline-specific approaches to sustainability that may not be easily quantified.

The speakers called for better alignment between PRME Sharing Information on Progress (SIP) reports, ranking criteria, and accreditation processes to reduce duplication and increase clarity. Faculty need support and autonomy to innovate within their own disciplines, not just through a centralized ESG lens.

“There’s always lots of things competing for attention. But it helps that accreditors and ranking bodies are asking these questions too.” – Matthew Gitsham

Final Thoughts

The session made it clear: metrics, rankings, and reporting frameworks are not ends in themselves but are tools to steer business education toward greater relevance and responsibility. As PRME and FT continue to align their approaches, institutions are encouraged to view these tools as part of a broader strategy for change.

With shared goals and collaborative ecosystems, rankings and frameworks can amplify what’s already happening in classrooms, communities, and curricula, paving the way for a future where business schools are not only competitive, but also impactful.