The Sorbonne Business School enters a new era

Guided by a strong commitment to corporate social responsibility in line with the establishment's humanist values and its mission as a public university service, the 2022-2024 strategic plan marked the beginning of Director Éric Lamarque's second term of office, renewed in August 2021 until August 2026.

This ambitious and sustainable project has been deployed since it was voted by the Board of Directors in March 2022, with the aim of establishing the leadership of the Sorbonne Business School in a highly competitive context, through several key issues:

• strengthen its attractiveness, with a reasoned growth in enrolments stabilized at around 2800 students;
• develop further its links with the professional world;
• consolidate its international dimension.

Passage aux RCE since January 1

This transition to Extended Responsibilities and Competences (RCE) is an important step in continuing its development in line with the 2022-2024 strategic plan.

Following the audit carried out by the General Inspectorate of Education, Sport and Research (IGESR) and the report sent to the Minister of Higher Education and Research in June 2023, the Sorbonne Business School, as an Établissement Public Administratif (EPA), was awarded Enlarged Responsibilities and Competences (ERC) on January 1, 2024, by a decree dated November 8, 2023 published in the Journal Officiel of December 7, 2023, giving it enhanced powers of action in budgetary matters and human resources management in accordance with articles L. 762-5 and L. 954-1 to L. 954-3 of the Education Code.

This evolution implies increased control, which requires the strengthening of internal steering and the consolidation of financial steering through the development of cost accounting on all of the establishment's activities. In concrete terms, accession to RCE status will enable the Sorbonne Business School to:

• respond more favorably to requests for partnerships in continuing education and research;
• implement an attractive human resources policy aimed at recruiting contract teacher-researchers;
• structure its real estate policy with investment in new premises by 2025-2026;
• align with the job and workforce management standards in force at higher education and research establishments and organizations in the Paris region as part of the site policy.

In this context, beyond its association by agreement with the University of Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne and for the first time since its creation in 1956, the Sorbonne Business School is involved in a contractualization process with the State, which will be based on a new institutional project for the period 2025-2030.

Development of the 2025-2030 project

This new project, which will present the strategic axes and associated action plan for the period 2025-2030, will be drawn up over the year 2024 in three stages:

• by summer 2024, as part of a participatory approach involving the entire establishment community (administrative and teaching staff);
• by autumn 2024, incorporating the recommendations of the evaluation conducted by the High Council for the Evaluation of Research and Higher Education between January and April 2024;
• by the end of 2024, through its vote by the Board of Directors.

In the university spirit constitutive of the Sorbonne Business School 's DNA, it will reaffirm for the years to come the humanist values of the establishment such as equal opportunity, success for all and the spirit of progress, as well as its resolution to accompany companies and organizations in their transformations through training and research.

 

Signing the lease and preparing for the investment of new premises for the 2025-2026 academic year

To enhance its attractiveness, the Sorbonne Business School has included in its 2022-2024 strategic plan the project to invest in new, responsible and better adapted premises, enabling it to have a specific real estate identity, extend its reception capacities and more generally improve the living experience for both students and staff. This process, which was carried out in conjunction with the various operators of the Ministry of Higher Education and Research and the Ministry of the Economy and Finance, culminated in the labellisation of the project on July 4, 2023 by the National Public Real Estate Conference.

The Sorbonne Business School thus signed on January 2, 2024 a firm 12-year lease in future state of completion (BEFA) with Mata Capital IM, an entrepreneurial and independent company specializing in real estate fund management, and Quaero Capital, a specialized independent management company, for new premises located at 11-15 rue Ponscarme in the 13th district of Paris, in the immediate vicinity of the Olympiades metro station (line 14) and the Pierre Mendès France center of the University of Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne. Within a perimeter close to its current location, the Sorbonne Business School thus remains at the heart of a district rich in higher education establishments and activity centers such as the Bibliothèque François Mitterrand and Station F.

With the building in need of renovation, the Sorbonne Business School plans to move in by summer 2025, with a view to the start of the new academic year in September 2025. Indeed, this real estate project, named Re-Génération, aims to transform a former maternity hospital into a state-of-the-art educational hub that has been fully renovated and aims for the highest standards in terms of environmental performance with Breeam Very Good certification. With a surface area of 3,800 m2 spread over 7 floors with 130 m2 of terraces (versus 3047 m2 today), it will enable meet the objectives of a reasoned increase in student enrolments (+150 to 200 per year).

 

Consolidation of the quality approach

As part of the 2022-2024 strategic project, the Sorbonne Business School has planned to consolidate its quality approach with the project to obtain international AACSB accreditation within five years, a guarantee of attractiveness and visibility with foreign audiences. The application for eligibility was submitted in November 2023, with a response expected in the next few weeks.

The evaluation by the High Council for the Evaluation of Research and Higher Education also makes a major contribution to this continuous improvement approach. Following the submission of the 2018-2022 self-evaluation report in summer 2023, the next evaluation of the Sorbonne Business School takes place in 2024 according to the following schedule:

• January 2024: evaluation of the research component
• Spring 2024: evaluation of the training component
• April 23 and 24, 2024: visit by the HCERES committee, with evaluation of the institutional component

 

The recommendations made in the report will feed into the 2025-2030 establishment project.

Reflecting the strategic direction of this approach within the framework of Éric Lamarque's second term of office, management wished to strengthen its quality team following the appointment in September 2021 of Olivier de La Villarmois, Professor, as Deputy Director in charge of quality, with:

• in September 2022: the appointment of Professor Ouidade Sabri as "International Accreditation" Project Manager;
• in January 2023: the creation of a dedicated administrative position for Accreditation, Labeling and Data Quality.

Today, the establishment's commitment to a dynamic of continuous progress is also recognized by:

• Qualicert "Formation recherche" service certification, issued by SGS and obtained every year since 2006, attesting to the quality of services offered to both students and companies;
• the HappyAtSchool® label, issued by ChooseMyCompany and awarded annually since 2022, to assess the quality of the student experience.

 

It should be noted that Sorbonne Business School relies on the reference framework of the dd&rs scheme, the Sustainable Development label for higher education establishments, to enhance the sustainable development and societal responsibility dynamic led by the establishment and continue to raise its skills on these subjects.

Continued CSR commitments

The new governance in place since 2021, integrating societal issues (gender equality, anti-harassment and anti-discrimination, secularism, social responsibility, environmental transition) has enabled the structuring of the Sorbonne Business School transversal commitment to these subjects and the even broader development of its action, with the aim of embodying an establishment with the best standards in CSR, in line with the 2022-2024 strategic plan. This proactive policy has resulted in the establishment of a dedicated team, made up of Nathalie Lallemand-Stempak, Senior Lecturer, Deputy Director in charge of societal issues, Philippe Eynaud, Professor, CSR Project Manager, and a dedicated administrative position of CSR Project Manager.

Because it has set itself the mission of positively impacting the world via training and research in a responsible approach, the Sorbonne Business School is committed to integrating the social and environmental transition into its teaching in a cross-disciplinary manner, in all its training programs. To instill a shared culture of responsible management, the Sorbonne Business School is also actively raising awareness among its entire community, students and staff alike, through specific actions such as conferences, collaborative workshops (climate fresco, biodiversity fresco, digital fresco, 2 tons workshop) or cooperative challenges (My little planet). The aim is to go even further in 2024 by training all staff in the challenges of environmental transition: a seminar dedicated to the teaching team is planned within this framework in summer 2024.

It is also a question of being exemplary through the implementation of concrete actions carried out at school level to improve resource and waste management (fleet of beverage dispensers with cup detector and coffee grounds recycling; water fountains connected to mains water without maintaining heat or permanent refrigeration; approach to recycling waste and eliminating plastic, etc.) as well as through the implementation of a responsible purchasing policy.

The Sorbonne Business School is also committed to offsetting greenhouse gas emissions: it is the first university establishment to have implemented such projects certified by the Law Carbon label promoted by the Ministry of Ecological Transition and Territorial Cohesion. Thus, since 2020, the establishment has financed several afforestation and reforestation projects designed by the National Forest Property Center, in Gironde and then in Vendée. Two new projects in the Hauts-de-France region are in the process of being certified. To take things a step further, 2024 will see the establishment draw up its "Sustainable Development - Social and Environmental Responsibility" master plan (SD DD&RSE) and its first greenhouse gas emissions balance sheet, enabling it to initiate measurable reduction measures alongside offsetting, with the eventual aim of becoming carbon neutral.

It also means providing a specific response to these issues through committed research, working on the contributions of management sciences in this field, enriching programs with new thinking and supporting organizations in their evolutions and transformations. Thus, research activity at the Sorbonne Business School, driven by the LAB Sorbonne Business School laboratory and its 7 chairs, is focused around three major societal issues defined by the establishment: Territory and Proximity / Risks and Uncertainties / Social Impact.

As part of the 2022-2024 strategic plan, numerous actions have thus been implemented or are in the process of being rolled out, illustrating the establishment's commitment to inclusion, equality and respect or in favor of environmental transition. Among them, the SPACE "Sensibiliser-Protéger-Accompagner-Communiquer-Écouter" prevention scheme, coordinated since 2022 by the establishment's anti-discrimination, harassment and sexist and sexual violence (VSS) unit. This initiative specific to the Sorbonne Business School, which has received support from the Ministry of Higher Education and Research as part of the 2021-2025 national plan to combat SGBV, is based on:

• the constitution of a network of sentinels as resource persons among staff and the student population to facilitate the collection and liberation of the word, made up of fourteen volunteers for the 2023-2024 academic year;
• a specific information campaign to provide information on the SPACE scheme and introduce the resource people to be approached;
• specific awareness-raising workshops for students, through 6h dedicated in training programs at the start of the 2023-2024 academic year.

2024 will also see the establishment update its equality plan.

In addition, the Sorbonne Business School will continue to work on setting up an equal opportunity school project with the University of Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne, the Société des Membres de la Légion d'Honneur (SMLH) and partner high schools in sensitive areas, with the aim of gaining accreditation under the "Les Cordées de la Réussite" scheme. In this context, the Sorbonne Business School will take part in the Youth Olympics, organized by the SMLH on May 26, 2024, bringing together more than 3,000 high school students throughout France, around a rally and team competitions.

Renewal of association with University of Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne

The Sorbonne Business School is associated by agreement with the University of Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne for the awarding of degrees: as such, its students graduate from the University of Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne. Signed every 5 years, the cooperation agreement will be renewed in July 2024.

Since Éric Lamarque's arrival at the helm of the Sorbonne Business School collaborations with the university have multiplied, through the School of Management of the Sorbonne (EMS) and the doctoral School Management Panthéon-Sorbonne in particular, with shared degrees, a co-directed research Entrepreneurship-Territory-Innovation Chair, joint laboratory activities and, more generally, a fully coordinated training and research offering, as is currently the case with the HCERES evaluation.

In 2024, as part of this association, the Sorbonne Business School will be particularly involved in the incubator project currently being created by the university at Station F, to take shape by 2025.

 

Deployment of student life

A strong focus of the 2022-2024 strategic plan, enhancing attractiveness also involves developing student life.

Beyond the support of student associations (BDE, Sorbonne Business School Alumni), this approach was consolidated in 2023 with the establishment of a dedicated referent within the administrative staff to steer and lead Sorbonne Business School student life, enabling the deployment of concrete actions over this 2023-2024 academic year:

• a partnership with ESSPACE, a third-party associative space committed to supporting entrepreneurial and offering a convivial and coworking space promoting exchanges of experience and skills at preferential rates in the direct vicinity of the establishment, the Sorbonne Business School paying for student membership;
• a specific Student Life Development Fund campaign aimed at all undergraduate and graduate students to better inform them about possible social aid and encourage civic engagement through a call for projects. Six projects have thus been submitted for this 2023-2024 academic year, compared with three in 2022-2023, and were studied by the  commission on January 25. Note that last year, the Student Life Development Fund project funded the installation of three sanitary protection dispensers in each IAE building;
• a dedicated newsletter "Once upon a time... your student news" distributed quarterly to develop a sense of belonging, encouraging the sharing of information and the promotion of student initiatives.

The new premises on rue Ponscarme will help foster this dynamic from the 2025-2026 academic year, enabling the improvement of student living conditions and the development of specific actions.