The Strategy Commission of the GSOM SPbU Board of Trustees summarised the results of its work in the second quarter of 2024. Representatives of the Business School's partner companies, SPbU management and project supervisors met to discuss the results, priorities and development goals.

The meeting focused on GSOM SPbU's success in strengthening international academic ties, sustainable development initiatives, the use of AI tools and other new formats by the Centre for Teaching Excellence, as well as career and sports development projects for students of the Business School.

 

International educational programmes

The global vision and competencies in management that form the basis of GSOM SPbU Strategy 2025 are reflected in the launch of joint educational programmes with leaders of the international academic community.

 

 ‘The GSOM SPbU team aims not just to be present in the international business education market, but to become its leaders. We can safely say that now we are among the best Russian business schools according to the results of research, this is confirmed by the latest data of such ratings as Forbes Education, EdUniversal and RAEX. And this, of course, plays an important role in the development of new partnerships with major universities. The ‘triple crown’ of accreditations is a unique advantage for GSOM SPbU, which makes us stand out to foreign partners and positively influences decisions on joint work,’ said Olga Dergunova, Deputy President-Chairman of the Management Board of VTB Bank and Director of GSOM SPbU.

At the moment, the Business School's interest is focused on expanding academic and business relations in the promising East Asian region. Thus, in 2024 GSOM SPbU will launch two projects with major universities of the People's Republic of China.

Thus, as part of the official visit of the Russian President to China, GSOM SPbU signed an agreement with Harbin Polytechnic University (HIT), VTB Bank and the Russian Export Centre to launch a Russian-Chinese business education programme. The first stream of entrepreneurs will start training already in 2024, the programme includes both educational modules and business visits to exchange experience of the two countries.

In addition, GSOM SPbU will launch a ‘double degree’ programme with Fudan University in 2024 for Master's programmes: ‘Management’ (Master in Management - MiM) and “Corporate Finance” (Master in Corporate Finance - MCF).  The first year of the programme students will study in St. Petersburg, the second year - in Shanghai.

 

Implementation of Sustainable Development practices

During the Strategy Commission meeting, Olga Dergunova thanked the participants for the successful implementation of numerous joint projects during the academic year. In 2024, GSOM SPbU will graduate more than 300 certified bachelors, masters and postgraduates into the labour market - each of them will soon become an important part of the country's social and economic development.

 

‘Raising a new generation of responsible leaders is part of our global mission. Already from the student bench we teach to change the world for the better, based primarily on the values of sustainable development,’ said Olga Dergunova. - In dialogue with business and the government, we develop such knowledge and skills so that our graduates become significant specialists and trigger positive changes in the corporate sector and in the government’.

Andrey Ivanov, Manager of Sustainable Development Initiatives at GSOM SPbU, spoke about the systematic approach to the implementation of educational programmes in terms of sustainable development (SD) goals.

In 2023, the Business School, as a competence centre for innovation and responsible business education, began to develop a methodology for qualitative and quantitative assessment of the integration of SD topics into the educational programmes of universities. In 2024, GSOM SPbU plans to scale these developments in partnership with leading Russian universities.

 

Among the SD projects that GSOM SPbU students are working on, Andrey Ivanov mentioned SDG-labelling (an AI tool for special markup of articles, term papers and theses on SDGs) and environmental initiatives, such as monitoring of avifauna at Mikhailovskaya Dacha using an AI-based device.

We have carried out an in-depth analysis of the degree of integration of SD issues into GSOM SPbU educational programmes and based on the results we can say that the integration of sustainable development principles into educational programmes is significantly ahead of the 15% figure originally set out in the Strategy 2025,’ said Andrey Ivanov. - It was decided to set the target of 40% and start scaling GSOM SPbU methodology in Russian universities’.

Olga Dergunova called on GSOM SPbU partners and trustees to actively participate in the discussion and integration of sustainable development practices into business education.

 

GSOM SPbU is a centre of expertise in teaching methods

Olga Alkanova, Director of the Centre for Teaching Excellence at GSOM SPbU, spoke about working on the implementation of methods for positive changes in the higher education system.

At the moment the Centre is working on tools and ethics of AI application in education, developing case method in business education and forming Russian-speaking teaching community in the Russian Federation and CIS countries.

  

‘In 2024, the Centre for Teaching Excellence of GSOM SPbU published a unique research (‘white paper’) on artificial intelligence in education. The Centre plans to continue its applied work as part of the development of AI Lab, which brings together teachers from universities and corporate universities who already practice the application of AI in their work,’ said Olga Alkanova. - This and many other things will become part of the task of forming a policy of AI application in the educational process, which is important for the whole university community’.

 

Career and harmonious development of students

Sports and extracurricular activities, along with career tracks, are becoming a universal format of interaction with partners for GSOM SPbU. In 2024, environmental and cultural events, competitions and Company Days were successfully organised at the Mikhailovskaya Dacha campus.

Elizaveta Troyanova, Director of GSOM SPbU Career Centre, presented proposals for the development of the industrial internship project to the Commission. In 2023, the project partners are large Russian companies - members of the Business School Board of Trustees: Severstal, Tele2, Sibur, VTB Bank.

Along with other career tracks, this is a unique opportunity for GSOM SPbU students to gain personal work experience and implement their initiatives in real business. The next stage of the project will be to expand the geography and sectors of the economy for industrial internships, as well as to set up processes for the employment of graduates.

In addition, in 2024 GSOM SPbU continues the comprehensive development of the sports area. A year ago, the Mikhailovskaya Dacha campus opened a sports infrastructure for students, built with the support of VTB Bank. To ensure its effective utilisation, GSOM SPbU has a new leader for sports education - Olga Naglya, MSMK in track and field athletics, world record holder in relay running.

 

‘We see the global contribution of the Business School to the education of successful leaders not only through training to high educational standards, combining fundamental knowledge and valuable practical experience,’ emphasised Elizaveta Troyanova. - Our goal is the harmonious development of the individual, which means that we are attentive to environmental, cultural and physical development. We are confident that sport will become for many GSOM SPbU students the powerful unifying and inspiring stimulus that will allow them to successfully cope with the challenges of university and corporate life’.