Institutional Profile
University of Gothenburg, School of Business, Economics and Law
Sweden
The School of Business, Economics and Law is one out of eight faculties at the University of Gothenburg, a public institution for higher education and research. The school was founded in 1923 as a private initiative, serving a growing need for internationally oriented academic and professional education among Gothenburg’s manufacturing companies, shipping firms, and trading houses. Today, the School has 3700 full-time students and 500 faculty members and staff, of whom about 125 are full professors or associate professors. The school also has an extensive network of approximately 160 partner universities. Well developed cooperation with business and society has characterized the School from the very start. For decades, the School has performed research related to sustainable development in the broad sense, now framed by Agenda 2030, and today’s School mission states: To develop knowledge, educate, and foster independent thinking for the advancement of organizations, policy and a sustainable world.
Accreditations: EQUIS, AACSB and AMBA
Dean: Per Cramér, full professor in International law
GBSN Ambassador: Marie Stenseke, Deputy Dean, Full Professor in Human Geography
“Collaboration on global capacity building in order to attain a societal transformation for long term sustainability is of ever higher importance for shaping our common future. I am therefore very pleased that the School of Business, Economics and Law at the University of Gothenburg has entered as a member of the Global Business School Network. The mission and purpose of GBSN is very well aligned with the mission of the School and we look forward to take an active part in the development of the network and to learn from the experiences of the other members.”
– Per CramĂ©r, Dean
Network Engagement
Current Partnerships with GBSN Members
We have relations with four GBSN members through Environment for Development (EfD), a network of environmental economics research centers focusing on effective management of the environment in the Global South, and coordinated by the EfD Global Hub located at the School:
- Universidad de los Andes in Colombia (EfD has members from the School of Management, the EfD center is hosted by the Department of Economics)
- Ghana Institute of Management and Public Administration (A PhD graduate from the School will now become the first dean of research at GIMPA).
- Strathmore Business School (A graduate there is affiliated with our EfD center, hosted by University of Nairobi).
- University of Cape Town (although we work with the School of Economics, while GBSN has the Graduate School of Business as member)
We have agreements on student exchange with the following GBSN members:
Vienna University of Economics and Business, HEC Montréal, SFU Beedie School of Business, Antai College of Economics & Management, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Copenhagen Business School, Hanken School of Economics, ESSEC Business School, Grenoble Ecole De Management, Kedge Business School, Corvinus Business School, University of Hungary, LUISS Business School (also double degree program), University of St. Gallen School of Management and Darla Moore School of Business at the University of South Carolina.
Ways the institution will support the GBSN mission to improve access to quality management and entrepreneurship education for the developing world
We will engage in the joint work among GBSN member for developing and implementing projects and practices aimed at providing quality education for the developing world, especially addressing the sustainability challenges of our time. We will also share good examples and practices in our own operations, which might stimulate other members in developing their work.
How does the institution plans to contribute to the network platform in the first year
During our first year as a member we will focus on the function of GBSN and the capabilities of the organization, in order to best understand how we can contribute. If opportunities arise, we will be happy to engage in collaborations.
Ways the institution hopes to engage with fellow GBSN member institutions
We hope to quickly get acquainted with other members. We will participate as much as possible in GBSN events such as Cross-Border Collaborations and the annual conference. At those events, we are looking forward to share ideas and take part of developing frames and strategies for actions, as well as engaging in specific works.
The biggest challenge facing management in your community and how the institution addresses this challenge
Our School’s research and education have a clear purpose: to make an impact and thus contribute to the advancement of society at large, in perspective of the complex global challenges, as formulated by the United Nations Agenda 2030. The Covid-19 pandemic is adding to the urgency and seriousness of these matters. Collaboration between academia, corporate and public partners, regulators and civil society is crucial in the process of building increasingly sustainable societies.
We continuously develop our engagement in cooperation with national and local actors in order to develop our concrete engagement in sustainability related issues, in education as well as in research. In this context, we act on problems facing the world today, whether it is environmental degradation, migratory flows, social exclusion, the stress of an aging population on the public budget, the vulnerability of political and financial systems, the distribution and redistribution of resources, or fundamental structural changes accruing from technological development.
Our multidisciplinary research centers (e.g. within tourism, human resource management, international business, finance, consumer science) have a particularly important role in developing and maintaining the relations with the surrounding society. They produce challenge-driven multidisciplinary research of high quality and relevance, and as such constructively deal with current issues for individuals, private and public organizations, and society in general.
The School’s unit for external relations provides an essential framework for developing and maintaining strong links with partners in the private and public sectors, primary through the corporate Partnership Program.
Program Spotlight
Combining theory, practice and outreach – the School’s law clinic and street law courses
The School’s Law Clinic opened in late 2014 in connection with the launching of a new course, Welfare Law in Theory and Practice, included as an elective in the Masters of Law program. In the course, students work at non-profit organizations giving legal advice to disadvantaged people while also attending lectures and seminars at the Department of Law. Upon completion of the course, the students are awarded academic credits (30 ECTS). The students work closely with their supervisors at the organizations (for example the Red Cross, Save the Children and Gothenburg Human Rights Centre) three days a week. Two days a week, they have lectures, exercise sessions and seminars at the Department of Law, which provides the academic part of the course. The idea is to help the students improve their legal skills by providing a good theoretical basis within the different areas of welfare law, along with opportunities to apply the knowledge in practice at the non-profit organizations.
In 2018, the work at the Law Clinics was further developed and expanded by means of a new course in migration law (15 ECTS credits) organized in close collaboration with the Swedish Migration Agency, the Swedish National Courts Administration, the City of Gothenburg and non-profit organizations. In the final month of this course, students engage in providing legal education/training to local communities at organizations and/or public agencies, schools etc. Gothenburg is a segregated city with many migrants and a high demand for skilled lawyers in the field of immigration law. With this course, we hope to contribute a little bit to a more socially sustainable city. For more information, click here
GBSN promotes the expertise and interests of our members by providing a platform to communicate news and open opportunities to global audiences and share how they are innovating in management education to the benefit of their colleagues around the world. The New Member Spotlight series serves as a way for new member schools to introduce themselves to the network. Click here for a full list of member schools