Integrating sustainable development goals into business education through curriculum design

Not long ago, I attended a course, Mainstreaming the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in business education: Strategy, implementation and practice, hosted by EFMD Global. The course mainly highlighted SDG integration into business education and showcased practical cases of how business schools across Europe implement them.

SDG integration into business education ensures that our students become responsible future business leaders and drive sustainable business practices. At Haaga-Helia, we are already in the process of SDG integration into our international BBA programme and significant efforts are being made in this regard. There are many ways of integrating SDGs into business education. However, this article focuses on achieving SDG integration through curriculum design.

Aiming for responsible future business leaders

Merging SDG knowledge into the curriculum is the fundamental step toward SDG integration. For the last few years, our international BBA curriculum has been revised to embed SDG-related content in business courses. Our international BBA programme incorporates ethics, responsibility and sustainability into its curriculum, emphasizing sustainable business practices, and ethical decision-making. Most of our courses have ethics, responsibility, and sustainability embedded in their learning objectives, contents, and assessments. Recently, a new specialized course, Responsible Business was introduced to our curriculum.

The dynamics within our international BBA programme reflect a growing recognition of the importance of sustainability in business education, aiming to equip future leaders with the necessary skills and knowledge to drive positive change in alignment with the SDGs. However, there are still some ways that might be improved given the priorities of our international BBA programme.

Robust incorporation of SDGs into the curriculum

As I attended the course, we were expected to prepare an SDG Integration template for our organisation or department. Therefore, we aimed to first highlight the priorities of our BBA programme and then determine the alignment of the priorities with SDGs, followed by identifying the gaps and eventually identifying top priority SDG targets and integration steps for the international BBA programme’s SDG integration. Below are some suggestions for a more robust SDG integration for SDG targets based on my research.

1. Although our programme has incorporated ethics, responsibility, and sustainability into the current curriculum, it is essential to provide comprehensive education for Sustainable Development to effectively integrate SDGs. To achieve this, it would be advantageous to include courses focused on corporate social responsibility, ethical leadership, and sustainability in business practices.
2. While our programme emphasizes economic growth, there might be insufficient focus on integrating innovation and technology management into the curriculum. More courses on digital transformation and innovation strategies could enhance students’ readiness to contribute to economic productivity.
3. Fostering entrepreneurship aligns directly with Haaga-Helia’s and our international BBA’s mission to promote business development. Therefore, social entrepreneurship should be offered as an elective course for students, as it demonstrates the connection between social impact and business principles. Our international BBA programme can play a crucial role in fostering sustainable economic growth through social entrepreneurship.
4. We should integrate case studies and projects that focus on innovation and entrepreneurship in a global context, enabling students to explore how to facilitate access to financial resources and improve market integration for small businesses, particularly in emerging markets.
5. Our international BBA programme does not sufficiently confront issues of inequality and discrimination in business practices. Adding modules that cover social sustainability issues like diversity management, inclusive leadership, and anti-discrimination policies would prepare students to create equitable workplace environments.
6. Raising awareness about sustainable development and responsible consumption is crucial for creating a culture of sustainability. By integrating sustainability education into the curriculum, we can empower students to make informed decisions and adopt sustainable practices in their personal and professional lives.
7. We can provide more practical learning opportunities to students and empower them to address climate change challenges effectively. This can be done by collaborating with companies to identify their climate-related challenges, organizing climate change-related hackathons and case competitions, and collaborating with other universities.

In short, by implementing these suggestions, our international BBA programme will be more aligned with the SDGs, enhancing its sustainability focus and turning our students into business leaders of the future.

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