Opinion Sustainability

Have business schools helped or hindered social and environmental progress?

Reflections on the history of business and the role business schools should play to help rescue our planet.

13th June 2025
Events Leadership

Chartered ABS Annual Conference 2025

The yearly gathering of Deans and leaders of UK business schools

Join over 350 Deans and senior leaders from UK business schools at the 2025 Chartered ABS Annual Conference in London on 10-11 November. Connect with top government officials, education leaders, and business experts to shape the future of business education in UK universities. 

Register now to benefit from the Early Bird rate!
Group Booking Discounts available: Bring a colleague and save 20% on the additional ticket

Conference themes include:

  • Strengthening the financial sustainability of the UK higher education sector

    How business schools are positioning themselves for long-term financial sustainability and supporting the financial robustness of parent institutions and the wider higher education ecosystem.

  • Promoting environmental responsibility and sustainability

    Exploring the role that business schools can play through their education, research and business engagement, and in collaboration with students, businesses, and the official sector, in achieving tangible progress on promoting greater environmental responsibility and developing environmentally friendly technologies.

  • Supporting international students

    How business schools can boost international student enrolments against a challenging political backdrop; and how the sector can work together to preserve and promote the UK’s attractiveness as a study destination; and the opportunities open to international students for post-study work.

  • Boosting domestic participation sustainably and equitably

    How business schools, and the wider sector, can meet the demand for higher education from a growing demographic, and support increased participation in higher education in ways that are financially sustainable and which support fair access and outcomes for all.

  • Deploying generative AI innovatively and ethically

    The opportunities for business schools to deploy AI to improve learning & teaching, research and business school governance; and address risks around inclusion, bias prevention, sustainability and academic integrity.

  • Recruiting, nurturing and developing faculty

    How Deans and leaders of UK business schools can help foster supportive working environments for academic and professional services staff; build rewarding promotion pathways; and create cohesive communities and cultures of inclusion that assist faculty recruitment in constrained times.

  • Driving prosperity and growth through lifelong learning

    How business schools are supporting economic growth, productivity and social mobility at local, regional and national levels through executive education, apprenticeships, short-course degrees, micro-credentials and post-graduate education; and the opportunities for the sector of the future of Help to Grow: Management, reforms in tertiary education, the Lifelong Loan Entitlement (LLE) and other initiatives.

  • Accelerating small business productivity and growth

    How business schools are supporting small businesses and entrepreneurs across the UK through Help to Grow: Management (HtGM) and in other ways; and new opportunities to help small business grow and prosper in the years ahead.

Event details

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Deans and Directors Development Programme 2025

13th February - 27th June 2025 Multiple venues

Become a conference sponsor

Supporting the Chartered ABS Annual Conference is an excellent way of engaging with Deans and directors of UK business schools.

If you are interested in supporting this year's event, please contact Oliver Lowe.