The pioneering role of Pforzheim University… 

Pforzheim University is one of the first 100 educational institutions worldwide to have joined the UN initiative "Principles for Responsible Management Education" (UN PRME).
The UN PRME are an initiative of the United Nations, which along with the UN Global Compact are to establish a responsible management education at universities. They were originated in 2007 by the UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and consist of six principles, which are guidelines for this responsible education. Participating universities focus their core competency training and research and their operations along these principles. 

…out of tradition and experience,…

Since the 1980s Pforzheim University has been dealing with environmental matters and since the 1990s with economic- and business ethics. Today students have the opportunity to gain additional qualifications in matters of corporate responsibility and sustainability through various offers. In the business bachelor’s programs all students have to choose between several specialization subjects in the elective module “ethics and social responsibility (EGV), such as economic and business ethics or sustainable development. The participation in PRME therefore is a logical continuation for Pforzheim University’s activities towards a responsibility and sustainability oriented education.

…with a great deal of motivation…

Traditional and general education, but especially management education, is accused of not having prepared the students for matters of ethics and sustainability, or only insufficiently so. Not only companies demand education institutions to provide solid, contemporary skills to their graduates in the field of corporate responsibility. The German Rector’s Conference in 2010 has urged universities to implement the concept of “sustainable development” in research, education operations and transfer.

…and ambitious goals…

The goal of Pforzheim University is therefore to incorporate the PRME topics on corporate responsibility and sustainability systematically in our education and research and thereby pay particular attention to the practical requirements of the industry. When integrating the topics into our curriculum we focus on newer academic demands to incorporate matters of corporate responsibility into education, demanded by business administration for example.

We want to avoid “education islands” in the sense of isolated special modules, where matters of responsible management are discusses detached from other courses. Instead, issues of corporate responsibility shall be integrated with relevant contents in all places, which are somehow connected to the topic.