oikos Annual Report 2020

Letter from the Presidents Dear oikees, dear friends of our increasingly international community of student change agents, 2020 has been a turbulent year full of open windows and mastered challenges for us at oikos.

With a situation that unraveled the complexity of our world to a new extent, we have been experiencing a global turning point with regards to the student voice, how it is being perceived Throughout the year, we observed the need and willingness of several institutions to grant students the steering position and let their ideas shape the paths of education, economics and management. The shift to the virtual realm allowed us to offer these voices the stage they deserve and the space they need to express their perspectives. Events like the UN Global Compact Leaders summit, the Higher Education Sustainability Initiative Webinar, Business Schools Sustainability events (e.g.

ESCP in Berlin, Imperial College in London), the UN Principles for Responsible Management Education Global Forum, to name a few, the attention of mainstream media outlets like the Financial Times.

Early in 2020 we were happy to co-launch Positive Impact Rating - the tool that grants first-hand access to students’ perception of sustainability and positive impact of their education. After the initial round, we’re already seeing first schools picking up the resulting data as a starting point for multi-stakeholder reflections and actions to move ahead.

Now more than ever, we at oikos International see our role in encouraging and empowering students and getting them ready for action and engagement with local stakeholders like faculty, universities or businesses, so they can take the lead in cocreating the more just and sustainable future. Our well-established formats like LEAP and the Spring meeting but also the new, innovative projects like the NexGenLead or the Curriculum Change Academy, and several chapter days and Regional Meetings brought the oikos community together. Bridging the physical distance, it sparked cross-cultural exchange which inspired outstanding projects of our chapters on the local level and new ideas, while also strengthening cross chapter collaboration. In the context of a drastically changing world, oikos’ vision and mission appear increasingly relevant and acute, clearly showcasing a destination and several important steps and leverages towards this future.

With the pandemic entering our everyday lives, the virtual world has become a truly tangible reality, as most of us had to shift to working remotely. The oikos community, and in particular the oikos International team, started exploring the virtual working environment back in 2016, becoming something of a pioneer and constant-