A new era for the Sorbonne Business School

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70 years of history, and a new chapter opening up!

Founded in 1956, on the initiative of Gaston Berger, then Director of Education at the Ministry of National Education, who was inspired by the American model to open up French universities to business, the Sorbonne Business School has always acted, through training and research, in favor of the development and dissemination of knowledge in management sciences. Its action is in line with the service of the companies it accompanies in their transformations and the service of the individuals it supports in their lifelong professional insertion and evolution.

Faithful to its public service mission, the establishment associated with University of Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne carries, by heritage and conviction, humanist values of equal opportunity, democratization of success and a spirit of progress. By offering excellent management education accessible to the greatest number in France and internationally, it strives on a daily basis to embody the Sorbonne's mottos "Knowledge for all, excellence for everyone" and "Here and everywhere on Earth".

In 2026, the Parisian university management school celebrates its 70th anniversary while looking to the future. From January, the school will move into new, modern premises within a dedicated building, designed to meet contemporary pedagogical and societal challenges. These spaces, designed to foster innovation, collaboration and the well-being of students and teams, are a key lever for realizing the ambitions of its 2025-2030 strategic plan. A year studded with events will thus mark this double celebration: a heritage to honor, a future to build.

A strategic plan 2025-2030 placed under the sign of continuity, sustainability and continuous improvement

From the start of the new academic year, the Sorbonne Business School is rolling out the first phase of its strategic plan 2025-2030, the fruit of recommendations from its assessment bodies and a collective will. Voted by the Board of Directors on June 24, 2025, this plan was drawn up as part of a participative approach involving the entire establishment community (administrative and teaching staff, members of the Board of Directors). It incorporates the recommendations of the evaluation conducted by the High Council for the Evaluation of Research and Higher Education, whose report was published in April 2024.

In an ever-changing competitive environment, this plan aims to strengthen Sorbonne Business School's leadership capacity and reaffirm the institution's singularity as a historic player in professionalization driven by its public service mission and its commitment to embodying exemplarity in terms of accessibility, inclusion and equality. Beyond professionalization, fostered by close collaboration with the professional world, the school's uniqueness also rests on a strong pedagogical conviction, rooted in research: that of favoring a scientific approach to analysis, synthesis, taking a step back, a critical eye to bring these essential skills to future managers.

It is in line with continuity, in a dynamic of sustainability and continuous improvement driven by the transition to Extended Responsibilities and Competences since January 2024, by the process of obtaining international AACSB accreditation currently underway, and by the continued transversal integration of major societal issues, notably the environmental transition and digital transformation.

A model of sustainable and responsible development...

For the next five years, the Sorbonne Business School is aiming for a sustainable development model,relying in particular on the consolidation of its structural management and financial capacities.

This approach is based on the Responsibilities and Extended Competences which strengthen the establishment's autonomy in budgetary matters and human resources management, enabling it to optimize the allocation of its resources. In this context, by enabling the implementation of new operating methods, the Responsibilities and Extended Competences play a central role in supporting the transversal transformation led by the establishment.

Thanks to its new premises, which will enhance its attractiveness and increase its intake capacity, the Sorbonne Business School is planning a reasoned increase in its Parisian enrolment (+200 by 2030 to reach around 2,150 sandwich and continuing education students in Paris), a balance that will guarantee high-quality support and optimal study conditions while generating additional revenue. Within this framework, the school plans to develop its continuing education sales capabilities,via the consolidation of in-house teams and skills to optimize candidate targeting and support, or via the strengthening of agreements in the field of online training with the support of partners. It also involves diversifying its financial resources notably dedicated to research, via the creation of a incubator dedicated to humanist entrepreneurship and a filiale de valorisation aimed at developing short courses and research services, structuring projects that also amplify the establishment's societal impact. These schemes will complement the endowment fund that has existed since 2018, tasked with collecting resources.

The stabilization of the real estate situation of the establishment is also an issue of financial sustainability: the Sorbonne Business School is currently studying the feasibility of becoming the owner of its future premises.

The issue of sustainability also concerns the international strategy of the Sorbonne Business School, which relies mainly on relocating continuing education programs abroad in collaboration with local partners. Echoing the Sorbonne's motto "Ici et partout sur Terre" ("Here and everywhere on Earth") and with a view to influencing the spread of French-style management, the school is present on every continent (Europe, Africa, Asia, Indian Ocean, America). With an uncertain geopolitical context in certain regions of the world, while ensuring the carbon impact of these international training programs, the Sorbonne Business School is today focusing on the development of existing partnerships (China, Vietnam) and a anchoring in other countries (Turkey, India, South America) in order to have a sufficiently broad portfolio of agreements to enable a constant number of programs to be opened in parallel each year. It also means strengthening the internationalization of its training, by developing programs in English and making Parisian programs benefit from the international experience of teaching teams, English-language training cases/supports and English-language course modules.

From a structural point of view, the strengthening of management control and structuring of the information system (IS) are priorities for deploying an optimized organization within the Responsibilities and Extended Competences framework, inscribed through the contractualization with the State. A management controller has already been recruited, and the digital master plan is currently being drawn up.

... in a continuous improvement approach, in line with major societal challenges

To support its sustainable development model, the Sorbonne Business School is placing continuous improvement at the heart of its strategic plan 2025-2030, making this approach a genuine lever for cross-functional transformation to move towards greater efficiency and quality, align with the best standards and meet contemporary challenges. This dynamic is taking shape first of all at all levels of the establishment (administrative, training, research) through the generalization of the integration of ecological and social transition issues, structured by the first Sustainable Development and Social Responsibility Master Plan, and of the accelerating the integration of artificial intelligence. At the same time, following on from the Qualicert service certification issued by SGS and renewed every year since 2006, Sorbonne Business School's commitment to the AACSB international accreditation process is fully in line with this transformation dynamic. It testifies to the establishment's determination to comply with demanding standards, while reinforcing its positioning as an exemplary establishment, in line with its public service mission and in response to the expectations of the Ministry of Higher Education and Research.

At the Sorbonne Business School, continuous improvement has always been at the heart of its action to promote lifelong professional development. This involves a permanent revision of its training offer, driven by research and close collaboration with companies and organizations, and the widespread use of the competency-based approach, an AACSB standard. While the HR & CSR Executive Master has been in existence for 20 years, the Sorbonne Business School is reinforcing the anchoring of its training offer in major societal issues with, by way of illustration, for the next continuing education intake in January 2026:

• the evolution of the Executive Master in Management Control and Organizational Audit into the CGAO Master "Sustainable Performance and Risk Management in the Digital Age"
• the evolution of the Executive Master in Marketing into the Master "Marketing and Value Creation"
• the creation of the short certification program "Managing the Performance of Organizations with AI" in partnership with Neocognition

Thus, at the Sorbonne Business School, continuous improvement is not just a method, but a shared culture to reinforce in the long term its positioning as an exemplary, innovative and resolutely forward-looking public establishment. In this sense, the establishment also wishes to optimize its internal organizational modes to improve the efficiency and sustainability of its processes and their digitalization. The aim is also to encourage all staff to develop their skills in order to integrate societal and technological issues into their professional practices, under the best possible conditions.

• Download the 2025-2030 strategic plan