Julia Christensen Hughes, the former dean of the Gordon S. Lang School of Business and Economics at U of G, spoke to CBC Radio Kitchener while attending the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.

Christensen Hughes attended the Dialogue at Davos with other business education leaders to discuss ways to change how business schools are ranked globally.

She explained that for years, business school rankings have reflected outmoded ideas, based purely on how well they taught students to produce strong bottom lines for their companies, or how high graduating student salaries were.

Christensen Hughes explained that ranking approach put at a disadvantage those schools that focus on building non-profits or that focus on creating a sustainable world that benefits employees, consumers and the environment — not just shareholders.

She said the results of the inaugural Positive Impact Rating were also released. This student-led rating system ranks 50 business schools worldwide on the culture of their business schools.

“I was very proud that Lang was recognized amongst what were called the ‘transforming’ business schools — business schools that are truly committed to doing things differently,” she said.