Lahore: The Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business (AACSB), the world’s largest business education alliance, has featured the Suleman Dawood School of Business (SDSB) in its Innovations That Inspire member spotlight programme. SDSB is one of 24 business schools worldwide to receive this honourable recognition this year for its Women’s Scholarship Initiative.
The SDSB Women’s Scholarship is the first in the world to extend a 50-percent tuition waiver to any woman accepted to its graduate programs, advancing women’s access to higher education and creating transformative social impact.
Innovations That Inspire recognizes several AACSB member schools each year that are drivers of change demonstrating innovative ways to address challenges and opportunities that have a positive societal impact. This year, schools were featured based on their innovative approaches to enhancing diversity, equity, inclusion and belonging (DEIB), a key focus of the AACSB’s accreditation standards. The innovations ranged from education programs, research, community engagement or outreach, entrepreneurship, and leadership initiatives.
Dr. Arshad Ahmad, Vice-Chancellor of LUMS commented, “This recognition by AACSB is an honour and it reflects our institutional commitment to building a diverse and inclusive community at LUMS by actively developing strong women leaders. The SDSB scholarship empowers more women to gain access to quality education and make a critical difference in our society through their leadership. My sincere hope is that this paves the way for others to do the same in Pakistan”
The Women’s Scholarship is unique because it reflects an ethos that fostering women’s leadership through world-class business education is essential to Pakistan’s growth.
Dr. Alnoor Bhimani, Honorary Dean, SDSB, said, “Women are a force for innovation, growth, and positive social change. Their engagement in business at the highest level is essential. The 50% women’s scholarship at SDSB recognises that real success for an enterprise exists only when women have the possibility to lead.”
Increasingly, the Scholarship is making an impact at LUMS and beyond. More women are studying at SDSB in generalist MBA programmes, and specialist full-time and weekend master’s degrees in Accounting and Analytics, Finance, Healthcare Management and Innovation, Supply Chain and Retail Management, Public Policy, and Technology Management and Entrepreneurship. SDSB’s graduate programmes currently comprise between 20 and 75 percent women. This is a true testament to the impact that the School is having on closing the prevalent gender gap that exists in all sectors and is a major challenge across Pakistan.
Dr. Syed Kumail Abbas Rizvi, Associate Professor, SDSB and Director, Accreditation and Quality Enhancement at LUMS added, “SDSB’s women scholarship is a powerful and far-reaching gesture by the School’s and LUMS’ leadership to acknowledge the significant role the women of our country have been playing in advancing and improving the business sector and society, by and large.”
The SDSB joins a community of over 200 business schools that have been honoured through the Innovations That Inspire initiative over the last 7 years for their work on transforming business education and creating social impact. AACSB President and CEO Caryn Beck-Dudley praised the SDSB saying, “Progress toward more welcoming, inclusive spaces requires action, and Suleman Dawood School of Business demonstrates leadership in this important effort. Through collaborations—among business schools, businesses, and communities—we will create a strong global society and equip leaders for positive impact.”
A full overview of all 24 innovative initiatives from across the world can be found on AACSB’s website.