To challenge young and experienced critical thinkers from around the world to push the boundaries of existing economics and management practice to become tomorrow’s responsible business and institutional leaders, contributing to a more efficient and sustainable society in rapid transformation.
To cultivate an inclusively diverse learning hub for forward-thinking visionaries at the beating heart of European corporate and institutional life. We cultivate a transformational environment where students, participants, alumni and faculty members share innovative research, intellectual debate and action-based learning that goes beyond classroom walls, connecting the leaders of tomorrow with the innovative vision and entrepreneurial spirit of global business executives and policy makers.
Question the norm
Open minded
Multi-disciplinary research
Life long learning
“Question the norm. Open minded. Multi-displinary research. Life long learning.”
Free inquiry, the deliberate conviction to think and research independently from authority, belief, opinions or judgement, is deeply rooted in the scientific and humanistic culture of our international business school. Leveraging the world-class multi-disciplinary research activities of our university, the Université Libre de Bruxelles (ULB), we commit ourselves to stimulate independent and critical thinking as key success factors for future leaders in business and society at large. We believe that our open minded research-based training along with lifelong action-based learning are the cornerstones of our unique Solvay Schools Alumni network connecting 23.000+ free thinking leaders, holding key positions spread over more than 85 countries.
World-class research
International publications
Academic excellence
Anticipation
“World-class research. International publications. Academic excellence. Anticipation.”
Excellence is at the core of everything we undertake. Excellence is not limited to our world-class economic research that pushes the frontiers of our understanding of the most pressing economic and management questions. Nor does it stop with the impressive list of peer-reviewed articles that our academic staff publishes on a regular basis in reputable international scientific and management journals.
All our academic degrees, Executive Educational and Corporate Training programmes meet the highest international standards, excelling in a unique blend of classroom teaching, expert research tutoring, action-based learning and flawless operations.
Global challenges
Sustainable efficiency
Inclusive diversity
Game changing
We are committed to nurture our participant’s & student’s critical engagement to advance economic understanding and responsible corporate management that contributes to a more efficient sustainable world.
Our students & participants perform best in class research on the role of the corporate and institutional world in a disruptive economical and societal context.
We believe that open minded multi-disciplinary trained business leaders play an integral part in addressing the biggest challenges that alter the future of generations to come: globalization, global warming, migration, rising inequality and growing pressure on the democratic institutions.
The Solvay Brussels Alumni network is rapidly internationalizing into a global network of socially responsible business leaders who consider open
participation as an integral part of Society.
Passion
Action based learning
Thought leadership
Creativity
“Passion. Action-based learning. Thought leadership. Creativity.”
Our faculty, participants, students and alumni are engaged, passionate and ambitious about one thing: stimulate an innovative entrepreneurial spirit through action-based learning and constantly questioning how things are done.
To make this happen, our meticulously selected faculty members are influential experts who combine the best of academia and entrepreneurial real world problem solving. Our close collaboration with the business world and our active alumni-student interaction ensures an early-stage access to first-hand insights on how global corporations and institutions respond to global megatrends as part of their long-term strategy. We are not only teaching our students how to build evidence-based stakeholder engagement, but are playing a key role in building responsible leaders for the future.”
The schools’s external governance is organised around three main constituents: the International Advisory Board (IAB), ULB authorities and International Accreditation Bodies (AASCB, AMBA and EQUIS).
The IAB provides a forum for intense discussions on strategic issues twice a year. The mission of the IAB is to advise the SBS-EM on all aspects of its strategic positioning, leveraging the views of the business leaders, prominent academics and policy-makers. Their advice covers the governance of the school, its internationalisation and its teaching policy, its research orientations, the corporate network, its fundraising policy and its recruitment policy. The IAB is informed of the yearly budget of the school and plays a role in its governance.
The school’s state-funded education and research activities are operated within the University and its governance system. Since its establishment as one of the faculties of ULB in 2010, the SBS-EM has a direct representation in all instances of the University’s governance.
For many years, international accreditations have been a key element in the school’s development strategy. They are needed to ensure the international visibility and legitimacy of the school and are often considered a prerequisite when establishing international alliances or exchange programmes, especially outside the European Union.
The school is governed by a council (the Faculty council), which the Dean chairs and in which all full-time and affiliate faculty participate, alongside representatives of the teaching assistants and researchers, of the students and of the administrative staff. The Faculty Council sets the strategic orientations and the budget and approves all proposed appointments and programme changes.
The Dean appoints Vice and Deputy Deans and Directors to assist him in his mission.
Research and development is supervised by the Research Committee and chaired by the Vice Dean for Research. It is organised in 5 centres, which host all faculty members and manage their respective budgets and administrative staff. Each centre appoints its representatives to the Executive Committee.
Statefunded programmes are managed by the Programmes Committee, chaired by the Director of Undergraduate Programmes.
Faculty Management is placed under the authority of the Dean and the Vice Dean of Academic Affairs, who supervise recruitment, promotion and workload management processes.
Solvay Executive Education (SEE) is organised as a separate legal entity. The SEE Board validates the strategic direction and programme portfolio, controls the budget and delegates the day-to-day management to the Deputy Dean for Executive Education.
Shared Services were created in 2013. They cover common support functions for both state-funded and privately-funded operations: financial supervision, communication, career services, corporate alliances, accreditations, international relations and the Dean’s Office.
The key external stakeholders of the SBS-EM are its employment markets, its sponsors, its alumni, the scientific community, partner institutions and the University. Internal stakeholders include faculty members, researchers and teaching staff, administrative staff and students. Each of these stakeholders exercise substantial influence in the school’s decision-making processes or in the setting of its direction and governance.
Democratic governance is one of the key values of the school. Indeed the SBS-EM has a very strong participatory culture, based on internal democracy. It also has a profound entrpreneurial culture, as witnessed by the very large number of succesful student initiatives, such as the Solvay Summer School, the Solvay Business Game, Campus Recruitment actitivites, the Solvay Economics Group and the Solvay Student Consulting Group.