Register | PIR

Participate in the PIR

The PIR welcomes all business schools around the world to take part in its annual rating. As it may take a bit of courage to let students assess one’s school, the principle of not featuring Level 1 and Level 2 schools in the report, provides a welcome safe space for first-time participating schools. There is no risk of being shamed or blamed. Schools can always inquire about any specific questions or concerns they may have.

Business Schools wishing to participate in the PIR 2024 rating can register anytime as of now. Schools can opt in to add AACSB-compatible or school-specific questions, if they so desire. There is a participation fee for schools, covering the administrative cost for operating the survey annually.

Participating school management will be asked to enable the independent student-led data collection process at their school. The data collection is purposefully long to enable schools in different systems to participate and will be available from September 2023 to March 2024.

The launch of the PIR 2024 results is anticipated to take place at the PRME Global Forum in June 2024, accompanied by the Annual PIR Global Summit.

Two steps to PIR participation

Committed student association

that will coordinate the PIR assessment and survey data collection in your school

Supportive business school

that registers and signs the agreement to pay the participation fee to the PIR Association

Additional Features

Making reporting easier and bringing added intelligence about student perceptions with optional add-ons.

AACSB compatible questions

Use pre-defined questions designed to provide additional evidence for your efforts in creating positive societal impact as outlined in AACSB's Standard 9: Engagement and Societal Impact.

Whether your school is already AACSB accredited or working in this regard, the newly added AACSB compatible questions provide an opportunity to align your PIR participation with the expectations set forth by AACSB Business Accreditation Standards.

Four add-on questions (thee Likert scale and one open-ended) have been pre-defined and refer to your school's strategy, curriculum and student engagement. You will decide the focal area specific to your societal impact efforts.

PRME SIP Report Add-On

Integrating the PIR framework into your institution’s PRME SIP reporting process provides a streamlined approach for evaluating adherence to PRME principles.

Through PIR’s systematic collection of student feedback, your school can gauge its performance on each of the PRME principles, ensuring that the voices of students are at the forefront of your responsible management education evaluation.

In the latest 2023 cycle, an impressive 80% of schools participating in the PIR program are also committed PRME members. This significant overlap demonstrates a shared dedication to responsible management education principles.

School-specific questions

Add new questions specific to your institution to document student perceptions and assessments of key strategic areas and activities of your school related to positive impact.

Use the PIR process to get closer to your students and uncover greater insights into your school’s outcomes and positive impacts. The open add-on questions allow you to tailor your PIR experience to your school’s context more concretely while using our tried and tested PIR Dashboard reporting tool for easy graphical data representation.

You will be able to develop four new questions and decide on specific focal area(s). You can use four possible formats: Likert scale, multiple choice, yes/no, and open-ended questions.

Get a fresh perception of school-specific efforts and activities related to societal impact and/or other topics of your choice through the lens of your core stakeholder: the students.

Take an additional step of measuring and validating your school’s progress related to societal impact and other key topics and themes of key importance to your school each year.

Enhanced data package in the PIR Dashboard with downloadable reports and visualized data related to the additional questions that can be used directly as evidence in reporting.

Participation fee

The Positive Impact Rating is a not-for-profit association. The annual participation fee of €1,600 covers the main costs of operating the rating, while introducing optional add-on fees for a more customised PIR experience. The optional add-ons cost €280 each or €480 if you choose to opt in for both as a package.

The PIR Association aims to be as inclusive as possible and offers support for schools from emerging regions.

Kindly reach out to info@positiveimpactrating.org for more information.

What happens next?

After registration and payment, the PIR Survey and PIR Dashboard will be open for students to access. The PIR survey will be available from September 2023 to 31st March, 2024. The student leaders driving the process at each school are free to decide within this period when the time is right for a focused campaign on campus. The PIR team will offer support and guidance to the student leaders.

“The PIR survey will give us invaluable student feedback on how we as a school are doing on sustainability. And together with our students we will be able to do more and better for sustainability.”

Karen Spens, President, BI Norwegian Business School

Three Ways to Drive Societal Impact
By Dean Alejandro Hernandez (via AACSB Insights)

"Organizations that want to add value to society must make commitments, generate insights, and deliver rapid execution of initiatives.

As businesses are increasingly expected to solve some of the world’s pressing problems, business schools must commit to displaying societal leadership.
Business schools must survey stakeholders and review their own operations to develop insights into how they can make a positive societal impact.
Schools also must ensure that they are able to adapt quickly, executing new initiatives at the accelerating pace of change."

Learn how Zimpelman College of Business, Drake University, USA is using the PIR as a tool to assess the effectiveness their societal impact programs. Read the full article on the AACSB website.

Six great benefits of PIR participation

Distinguish your school

Join a select number of schools globally and exclusively access the PIR logo for your communications

Maintain improvement

Through our PIR tool and support for school development

Peer learning

Connect with other PIR schools to improve your impact

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Gather evidence

Document positive impact for reporting, accreditations and rankings

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Collaborate for impact

Dialogue, information sharing, and cooperation with students and student organizations

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Representation

PIR will represent and champion schools in the global higher education sector and high-level events

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