DCU Business School Social Impact

Our School’s commitment to having a positive societal impact cascades through our teaching, research and engagement activities and is evident in our mission, vision, and values.

• Our mission: ʻ… through our teaching, our research and our engagement with industry, we contribute proactively to the development of individuals, industry, and society.’
• Our vision: ‘to be recognised as an international business school that transforms individuals, industry and society through our excellence in our teaching and research.’
• Our values: ʻResponsible – In our activities and conduct, we are conscientious, sustainable, ethical and honourable.’ ʻOpen – In our interactions we are inclusive, collegial, supportive and respectful.’

In shaping our strategic goals, we recognise that our students expect us to help them be leaders that can imagine and deliver creative solutions to the problems of sustainability, consumption, health and wellbeing, and inequality. We recognise that businesses expect that our research should provide insights into how they can lead the transformation required to meet global challenges, and we embrace the government’s and society’s expectations that the School should foster responsible business practices and educate responsible future leaders. 

Our first strategic goal focuses on the transformative capacity of our students for business and society. Increasingly applied, problem-solving, and challenge-based learning activities, based on our distinctive enterprise engagement and embedded with strong theoretical foundations, will be at the forefront of our programmes. We will prepare ethical, work-ready graduates and executive leaders to innovate, challenge assumptions, and deliver value for business and society.

Strategic goal 1: ‘To enable students to become agents of transformational change for their careers, for local and international business, and for wider society.’

The School has two committees that work in conjunction with the Executive Dean and the Management Board and deliver on our commitments to societal impact:

1. Responsible Business Committee (RBC). The RBC oversees the implementation of the Responsible Business strategy, ensuring that ethics, responsibility and sustainability principles are integrated into teaching, research, and community engagement activities. The RBC reports directly to the School’s Management Board, reflecting the institutional commitment to advancing RME in alignment with the Principles for Responsible Management Education (PRME), the UN Global Compact and Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). 
2. Equality, Diversity, and Inclusion (EDI) Committee. The School’s EDI committee oversees the School’s ongoing actions relating to EDI and manages the development and delivery of the School’s Athena Swan commitments. The key responsibilities of the EDI committee are to define the School’s EDI objectives and KPIs, while also overseeing the School’s engagement with the Athena Swan Charter and Principles.

PRME

PRME. Principles for Responsible Management Education (PRME). In 2012, DCU Business School became a signatory to PRME (Principles for Responsible Management Education) and has since remained an active contributor, having submitted 6 ʻSharing Information on Progress’ reports (2014, 2016, 2018, 2020, 2022, and 2024). 

Athena Swan

Athena Swan Charter. The Athena Swan Charter is a framework used to support and transform gender equality within higher education and research. In 2022, we completed an extensive self-assessment of EDI within the School and were awarded an Athena Swan Bronze Award. The School is the first of the 5 DCU faculties to receive this award.

Education 

Our societal impact features strongly across the programmes delivered by the School, and ethics, responsibility and sustainability (ERS) are core competencies we seek to develop in all our graduates. 

Our Graduate Competency Framework, which is applied in all our programmes, is structured around four key competency areas. These competencies ensure that the curriculum fosters responsible and ethical decision making in all students. They provide experiential and challenge-based learning opportunities that address real-world global issues. The Framework prepares graduates to lead with purpose, balancing economic success with ethical and sustainable practices in alignment with PRME’s vision for responsible management education.

• Cognitive Intelligence

• Competency: Critical thinking, analytical reasoning, and evidence-based decision-making. Application of theoretical knowledge to real-world business challenges.  

Societal impact link: Students are encouraged to critically evaluate and address complex global issues using evidence-based approaches, supporting PRME’s principle of responsible purpose.

• Social Intelligence

• Competency: Effective communication, teamwork, and collaboration in diverse environments. Building interpersonal relationships to achieve organisational goals.

Societal impact link: Promoting partnerships for learning and collaboration across stakeholders, aligned with the principle of dialogue and fostering responsible leadership in diverse settings.

• Emotional Intelligence

• Competency: Self-awareness, adaptability, and resilience in professional contexts. Leadership capabilities rooted in empathy and ethical practices.

Societal impact link: Building individual leadership rooted in ethical values, addressing PRME’s emphasis on creating sustainable and responsible leadership within organisations.

• Contextual Competencies

• Competency: Understanding global, cultural, and ethical dimensions in business. Integration of sustainability and societal impact considerations into decision making. 

Societal impact link: Directly supporting PRME’s principles of values and sustainability, embedding the UN SDGs into the curriculum and preparing students to address pressing global challenges. 

Our curriculum includes specialist modules in ethics and sustainability, e.g.:

• Sustainable Finance

• Business and Professional Ethics

• Responsible Management and Leadership for Sustainable Business

• Accounting for Sustainable Business

• Sustainable Aviation

• Marketing for Sustainable and Ethical Development

• Auditing & Professional Ethics

• Financial Statement Analysis & Ethics 

• Ethics for Business & Technology 

• Accounting Sustainability & Society 

• Sustainable Enterprise & Innovation 

• EcoTech Challenge: Pioneering Innovative Technologies for a Sustainable Future

• AI & Leading Sustainable Innovation

 The School also delivers a specialist postgraduate programme focused on ERS issues: MSc in Emergency Management.

Our executive education offers the Let’s Lead! Leadership Development programme to support women leaders. It was developed on the back of research showing that women’s careers often follow a very different route to those of men and regularly require them to consider and choose between competing and conflicting identities and professional goals. The programme provides women with an opportunity and a network of other female leaders to consider and discuss these complex issues in a supportive yet action-oriented environment. 

Research 

DCU Business School actively fosters a research culture centred on positive societal impact. Faculty members lead diverse projects, from increasing gender representation in aviation and exploring blockchain’s role in reducing carbon emissions to investigating agile leadership in embedding sustainable business practices. These initiatives bridge academia and practice, addressing pressing societal challenges while influencing policy, industry standards, and community development. 

Faculty are encouraged to publish across the UN SDGs. Our research strongly aligns with the following SDGs: decent work and economic growth, reduced inequality, industry, innovation and infrastructure, gender equality and no poverty, with strong growth evident in other areas. We seek to consolidate our research in these areas to maximise impact.

The School has promoted the ERS agenda in its research through the following deliberate actions:

• Recruiting faculty with expertise in ERS. 
• Supporting ERS research streams, e.g. through the Dean’s Green List initiative. The list was initiated to recognise faculty members who make significant contributions to research in ERS, showcase impactful peer-reviewed journal articles, and map research contributions to the UNSDGs.

The Anti-corruption Research Centre (ARC) studies the causes and consequences of corruption and supports the development of new anti-corruption policies and initiatives, in Ireland and abroad. A major funded research project in ARC, the Corruption, Gender, and Sustainable Development (COGS) project, seeks to uncover new mechanisms through which corruption acts as a barrier to inclusive sustainable development. 

Faculty research projects focused on producing positive societal impact

A broad range of faculty are active in research projects related to ERS topic. These include: 

• Gender, good health, and well-being 

• Women in Aviation. In partnership with the aviation industry, this project encompasses a range of activities aimed at growing knowledge and building awareness around inclusivity.

• REWIR is a research project investigating how employees return to work after experiencing long-term debilitating illnesses.

• INTERSEX is creating knowledge on intersex studies, policies, and practices from a human rights 

perspective. The project, bringing together 21 organisations from ten countries, is training a cohort of researchers who will enable fast-track developments of intersex studies, policies, and practices. 

• Climate action
• Economic regulation of air traffic control in European airspace – A reform plan to raise operational efficiency, reduce fuel use and improve the sustainability of air transport. 
• Environmental sustainability – Research on how technologies such as blockchain help reduce carbon emissions at the firm level; on what drives firms in developing countries to engage in environmental and social sustainability; and on the impact of Chinese investment on the environmental sustainability of host countries. 
• Faculty contribute to DCU’s Institute for Climate and Society 
• Industry, innovation and infrastructure 
• RINNO – a Horizon 2020 project that aims to deliver a set of processes that, when working together, give a system, repository, marketplace, and enabling workflow process for managing deep renovation projects.
• The impact of layoffs on employees within the technology sector in Ireland – a longitudinal study examining the impact of job loss on employee emotions
• The role of agile leadership in embedding sustainable business practices – a comparison of profit and non-profit organisations 
• Agile marketing and responsible innovation – exploring how open innovation and marketing agility influence new product development and responsible innovation. 
• Sustainable cities and communities 
• Voices from the Frontline – a review of the experiences of Irish emergency medical services (EMS) first responders during the first nationwide restrictions to curb the spread of Covid-19. Dissemination included an overview of the findings to senior management in EMS organisations. 

Rankings

DCU Business School regularly submits data for prestigious global rankings – Financial Times (Master’s in Management, Finance, and European Business Schools), QS (Business Master’s and Executive MBA). These rankings increasingly include data on sustainability, such as carbon emissions and targets. Most notably, FT rankings of MSc in Finance and MSc in Management programmes require data on core teaching hours dedicated to ESG content and both the University’s and the School’s carbon footprint (incl. Scope 3 emissions). These sections now account for 7% of the final FT ranking. 

Recent rankings results: 

• DCU Business School was ranked in the top 90 Business Schools in Europe in the Financial Times Ranking 2023. 
• DCU Business School’s MSc in Management was ranked in the top 95 in the world in this year’s FT Masters in Management Ranking 2023. 
• Other recent Business School rankings include: 
  • MSc in Management: +151/206 – QS Business Master’s Rankings – Management – 2025 
  • MSc in Finance: 121-130/222 – QS Business Master’s Rankings – Finance – 2025 
  • MSc in Digital Marketing: 71-80/140 – QS Business Master’s Rankings – Marketing – 2025 
  • MSc in Supply Chain Management: 24/85 – QS Business Master’s Rankings – Supply Chain Management 2025 
  • Executive MBA: 50/66 – QS Executive MBA – Europe – 2025 
  • Executive MBA: 141-150/193 – QS Executive MBA – Global – 2025 

• DCU is ranked 174/1743 in QS World University Rankings: Sustainability 2025. We scored very highly across the board, achieving 93.9/100 for Sustainability and 97.8/100 for Equality.   
• DCU is ranked 101-200/1,963 in the THE Impact rankings 2024.

Connections with practice and external partners

The School actively engages with external stakeholders as part of our mission to disseminate knowledge and to have a positive impact on our local, regional, and national communities. In addition, engagement with external organisations is critical to our activities related to teaching and researching ERS issues. 

• Emergency Management Institute Ireland (EMII). DCU is host to the EMII, the primary professional association for organisations and individuals engaged in emergency and crisis management in Ireland. The EMII hosts emergency/crisis management conferences, workshops, seminars, and site visits. The EMII board comprises members from emergency services, the defence forces, private industry, the non-profit sector, and academia. 

• Dublin Airport Authority and Fingal County Council partnership with DCU on sustainability in aviation. This multi-year agreement involves faculty working with the partners to reduce the environmental impact of the aviation sector on the region. This includes a focus on public transport connectivity to the airport, decarbonised energy sources, and a goal to achieve Net Zero carbon emissions by 2050. 

• Irish Coalition on Business and Human Rights. DCU Business School is a member of this coalition of civil society organisations and academic experts working collaboratively to progress corporate accountability, based on respect for human rights and the environment. 

• Industry speakers/mentors etc. Industry experts from a wide range of corporate, NGOs, and government bodies contribute to many School EDI activities, including contributions to #Hack4Change and executive education (e.g., Let’s Lead!). 
• Board memberships. Faculty work with industry through contributions to non-profit organisations, social enterprises, etc. Faculty currently serve on boards such as Fingal Leadership Partnership; City Farm, Ballymun; Clontarf Hospital; Stewarts Care; National Directorate for Fire and Emergency Management; Royal Dublin Society; European Foundation for the Improvement of Living and Working Conditions; and Advisory Council against Economic Crime and Corruption. 
• Irish Government Task Force for Emergency Planning. Faculty from the School, working with the Government Task Force for Emergency Planning which is chaired by the Tánaiste (Deputy Prime Minister), designed the first ever National Risk Assessment (NRA) for Ireland (2012) and have led every NRA process ever since, most recently in 2023. 
• 95 industry partners participate in DCU Access to the Workplace scheme. The Higher Education Access Route (HEAR) is an admissions scheme for students whose economic or social background are underrepresented in higher education. Employers provide paid summer internships to students who entered DCU via the HEAR scheme. Companies include: Bristol Meyers Squibb, Bank of Ireland, Deloitte, eBay, Goodbody Stockbrokers, Irish Life plc, KPMG, MSD, PwC, and Vodafone.