Subscribe to our Newsletter

Receive the latest PRME News directly in your inbox by subscribing here.

curtainNewsletter.heading

Sharing Information on Progress (SIP) 2.0

Why are we upgrading our SIP reporting?

After 15 years of SIP Reporting on PRME's Six Principles, we have recognized the importance of the Signatory Members’ SIP Reports as a way of reporting their PRME implementation journey within their institutions and as a way of communicating these advances to internal and external stakeholders. With its implementation in 2008 until today, there are more than 2,800 reports available on the PRME website, evidencing the commitment of the signatories within the environment of responsible management education.

During this period, different stakeholders have collaborated for the evolution of sustainability and impact reporting, whether in the higher education or business environment, since multiple frameworks and many metrics are emerging and growing in importance. With the advancement of visibility around the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and environmental, social, and corporate governance (ESG) metrics, these topics have taken the lead in the need to "walk the talk". Building on an era of advancing the PRME Principles, with an action-oriented mindset, a new SIP reporting scheme can strengthen the convergence of responsible management education, impact and responsible business.

Process of revamping SIP reporting

The PRME Sub-Committee on Sharing Information on Progress (SIP) Impact was created and approved by PRME’s Board on 30 November 2020. This Sub-Committee operates under the umbrella of the PRME Board’s Committee on Nomination and Governance. The original purpose of this Sub-Committee was to support and provide PRME Signatories with inspiration for more precise Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) goal-setting and a more thorough recording system for business school activities and impact on sustainable development.

The Sub-Committee is led by Wilfred Mijnhardt, supported by the PRME Secretariat, and consists of a group of members from the global PRME Community. The members were selected based on their professional expertise in SDGs, impact, and impact reporting. The Sub-Committee is composed with respect to diversity (e.g. gender, geography, and ethnicity).

The objective for creating a Sub-Committee was to design a renewed and helpful reporting logic with regards to responsible management education and sustainable development for Signatory Members that aligns with the changing institutional environment. Intended to last from January until June 2021, the committee has grown in its relevance and impact, having its mandate expanded, and ending its activities in June 2023.

As deliverables of the Committee, the Terms of Reference indicated that the group should:

  1. Design a renewed SIP/impact reporting logic for Signatory Members, making good use of accreditation, stakeholder and sustainability reporting schemata, respecting the institution’s mission and context.

  2. Produce an overview of relevant impact reporting schemes and indicators aligned with the PRME Principles and relevant schemata for sustainability reporting, including a set of illustrations of productive impact reporting practices from PRME Signatories.

  3. Recommendation for a new infrastructure/platform for reporting under PRME orchestration: The reporting infrastructure can be more or less technology driven. Either the platform can evolve into a database/data graph-based platform with dynamic reporting facilities using smart and open science technology (making use of technology like AI and persistent identifiers (PID) logic). Or the alternative can be a more traditional document based periodic/thematic reporting mechanism.

To achieve this goal, Committee members met in 23 online meetings from 2021-2023, with a trajectory of activities divided in four phases:

Phase 1: Development of SIP Logic - January to July 2021

During this period, the group worked on defining the terms of reference, and reflecting on the current structure of SIP reporting, through alignment with external stakeholders and inspiration from different ranking models, accreditation and the UN Global Compact.

Phase 2: Consultation process and resourcing - September to December 2021

The consultations had two objectives:

  1. Reflect on the intention to update the PRME Principles and include a new principle focused on resilience.

  2. Explore the participants' perception of the new logic of SIP Reporting as well as inputs regarding potential indicators and narratives for each Principle.

Phase 3: Operationalization - January to July 2022

Phase 3 was very relevant for forwarding the committee's advances toward the feedback and engagement of the PRME community. Some decisions were fundamental, such as the process of approaching and aligning with rankings and accreditors, identifying indicators and potential narratives, in addition to directing fundraising strategies to support the construction of the PRME Commons.

Phase 4: Setting the stage for implementation - September 2022 to May 2023

With the announcement of the 3-year partnership between PRME and the Economics of Mutuality Foundation (EOM), the work of the SIP Committee was dedicated to creating a solid platform for the strengthening of this partnership.

In this sense, the Committee solidified the Five Design Principles that guides the transition to SIP 2.0 as a way to create the foundations for the platform, in addition to having carried out a new consultation with the PRME community in relation to a new set of questions and indicators for reporting.

Five Design Principles:

1. Beneficial to multiple users
SIP creates value for individual faculty members and students, as well as center directors, deans, and admissions/placement/development officers, and the many external stakeholder who care about the state of business education in the world today (firms, NGOs/NFPs, government, media, prospective students and alumni, donors). It helps those who are doing the day-to-day teaching, research and learning in the business schools, as well as those who are designing and leading the initiatives to better the teaching and learning environment in the schools, and those in the world who affect and are affected by the schools’ work.

2. Inspire for creativity & learning towards progress
Enable emulation, foster problem solving, encourage collaboration, and in the end, make a better world.

3. Use the power of evidence based strategic narratives
Convinced of the power of story-telling, we want to capture narrative reports of a school’s work and add the counts and analytics of initiatives and quantitative assessments of impact.

4. Institutional learning journey
We want to hear about how the schools plan and implement their initiatives, their success (and yes, struggles and failures), and of course, the impact of their work. We want our members to be able to learn from each other and explore each other’s work at any time.

5. Inspired by open science values and smart technology
Explore the emerging (selective open) knowledge base of stored information and analytics that will help business schools serve society by helping each member school best serve its own internal and external stakeholders.

Access the End Report of the Sub-Committee on Sharing Information on Progress (SIP) Impact.

Sub-Committee on SIP

Antonio  Hautle

Antonio Hautle

Executive Director, Global Compact Network Switzerland & Liechtenstein
Dagmar  Langeggen

Dagmar Langeggen

Director, Library and Learning Center at Norwegian Business School
Katell  Le Goulven

Katell Le Goulven

Executive Director, Hoffmann Global Institute for Business and Society at INSEAD
Gustavo  Loiola

Gustavo Loiola

Manager, (i5) Leadership Education, PRME
Molly  MacEachen

Molly MacEachen

Sustainability Analyst, Sustainability & ESG Services, Deloitte Audit & Assurance, Deloitte & Touche LLP
Wilfred  Mijnahardt

Wilfred Mijnahardt

Policy Director, Rotterdam School of Management, Erasmus University
Dilip  Mirchandani

Dilip Mirchandani

Professor of Management, Rohrer College of Business, Rowan University
Dr. Mette  Morsing

Dr. Mette Morsing

Head of PRME, United Nations Global Compact
Heather  Ranson

Heather Ranson

Associate Teaching Professor, Associate Director for the Centre for Social and Sustainable Innovation
Divya  Singhal

Divya Singhal

Professor of Management; Chairperson, Center for Social Sensitivity & Action, Goa Institute of Management
Jim  Walsh

Jim Walsh

Former President, Academy of Management
Alec  Wersun

Alec Wersun

PRME Global Chapter Council; Associate Professor, Glasgow School for Business & Society
Giselle  Weybrecht

Giselle Weybrecht

Consultant, Excellence in SIP Reporting Awards
Louise  Whittaker

Louise Whittaker

Executive Director, Academic Programmes, The University of Pretoria’s Gordon Institute of Business Science

Benefits

SIP 2.0 provides several opportunities for the PRME and its Signatories to engage in the digital transformation. Benefits for Signatory Members include but are not limited to:

  • Build credibility and relevance by showing their commitment to the PRME Principles and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

  • Measure and demonstrate progress on the PRME Principles for the individual institution as well as regionally and globally.

  • New ”progression" levels aligned with SIP questions, to enable a self-diagnosis of the institution at the time it fills out the report and also to reflect on commitments.

  • Through the new PRME Commons where SIP reporting will take place:
    • Receive insight, learn and continuously improve performance. PRME Commons will be a space for global knowledge exchange and peer-learning across countries, regions, and the world with an incentive mechanism for transitioning from first- to second-generation responsible management education (RME). It aims to provide technical help, resources, and guidance at every step of the way, and will also create a space to share good practices. It will help you to identify gaps and set goals to improve your institution's impact and development journey on PRME year over year.

    • Space to share narratives and stories in a systematic way, creating a space for data analysis, tagging, etc.

    • Monitor - not ranking - progress with peers through one of the largest sources of free, public, and trusted responsible business education data.

SIP 2.0 Readiness

Webinars, resources, and more coming soon!

Transition Timeline

June 2023 - Global Forum

  • Present ambitions and outlook for the PRME Commons based in the work with the Early Adopters
  • Presentation of the SIP Questionnaire (working document) and alignment with the PRME Principles
  • Launch transition plan and new SIP guidelines

June to November 2023

  • Platform development and usability
  • Consultations with the PRME Community regarding the platform
  • Board inputs on the SIP Questionnaire

October 2023

  • Launch refreshed PRME Principles and final SIP Questionnaire

November 2023 to February 2024

  • Platform tests with individually invited schools

July 2023 to February 2024

  • Monthly webinars for training on SIP issues, collecting data, accessing the platform, etc. Includes support from the Early Adopters.

March 2024 to June 2024

  • New submission period on the PRME Commons
  • Schools should complete and submit their SIP during the universal submission period, which will take place from March through June annually, in order to maintain 'active' status in PRME.

July to December 2024

If the school fails to complete and submit their SIP during the universal submission period, they will fall into 'non-communicating' status, and their name and status will be publicly displayed. This status can be reverted to 'active' by submitting the SIP Questionnaire any time between 1 July and 31 December, annually.

Download the new Questionnaire


This document is for reading and viewing purposes only.


FAQs

# How frequent will the new SIP Reporting be?

PRME will follow a similar submission period to the UN Global Compact’s COP, receiving reports from Signatory Members annually beginning in March - June 2024.

# Who does this new reporting process apply to?

This new reporting process will apply to all PRME Signatory Members beginning in 2024, with some exceptions, and become mandatory for all PRME Signatory Members in 2025, during the universal submission between beterrn March and June.

Any and all Signatory Members are however welcome and encouraged to submit a Sharing Information on Progress Report under the SIP 2.0 logic in 2024. Doing so offers an opportunity to be recognized as a first-mover.


Exceptions include:

  • If an institution joined PRME between June 2022 and June 2024, the deadline to submit their inaugural SIP Report under the new process will be during the March - June 2025 submission period.
  • PRME Signatory Members with SIP deadlines in 2023 can opt to instead submit under the SIP 2.0 questionnaire during the March - June 2024 submission period. If your institution prefers to submit under the original SIP model, you may choose to do so on your regularly scheduled deadline between July 2023 and March 2024 - in that case, your next report will be due only in 2025.
  • PRME Signatory Members with SIP deadlines between July 2024 and February 2025 are encouraged to submit during the 2024 universal submission period, but will be required to submit annually from 2025 onward.
  • Early adopters of SIP 2.0 will not be due to submit another report, regardless of their original SIP deadline, until the March - June 2024 submission period.

From 2025 onward, all PRME Signatory Members will have the same deadline for the questionnaire, during the March - June submission period annually.

# Can I access the new SIP questionnaire ahead of the official platform launch?

Yes! You can download the questionnaire to familiarize yourself with the content ahead of the submission period (see lefthand panel to access the questionnaire). There will be guidelines and webinars offered in Q3 and Q4 of 2023 to support the onboarding process to SIP 2.0.

# What if my institution fails to submit a report within the stipulated submission period?
  • If the institution fails to complete and submit their SIP during the universal submission period, they will fall into ‘non-communicating’ status, and their name and status will be publicly displayed. This status can be reverted to ‘communicating’ by submitting a Grace Letter requesting an extension of no more than 60 days, and then submitting the SIP Questionnaire any time between 1 July and 31 December, annually.

  • If a ‘non-communicating’ institution fails to submit their SIP Questionnaire by 31 December, they will be delisted from PRME for not meeting its Signatory Member requirements. This will be applied in January of the following calendar year.

  • A transition period will apply in this process, so delistings are expected to happen after December 2025.

# Are all questions in the questionnaire mandatory?

Signatories will be asked all of the questions, but they can indicate if it does not apply to their own situation or if the data is not available.

# What will be the cutoff day for submitting a SIP Report in the old format?

The last day that SIP Reports will be accepted for submission on the PRME website, according to the SIP 1.0 reporting logic, will be 29 February 2024.

# What will the SIP Awards look like from 2024 onward?

The SIP Awards in 2024 will recognize reports submitted between 1 May 2023 and 29 February 2024, in the current SIP 1.0 reporting logic, according to the regular criteria and peer review process that PRME has adhered to for the last several years. SIP Reports submitted in the 2.0 format during the new universal reporting period between 1 March 2024 and 30 June 2024 will be recognized the following year.