Our ethical standards stem from an awareness of the impact our activities have on people, organisations, society and the planet. We adress the challenges our world is facing, based on the values of integrity, respect for others, teamwork, maintaining a critical perspective, and a commitment to high quality, passion and the spirit of innovation. These are the values that should be lived and promoted at our faculty and that make up our faculty profile. We support the Sustainable Development Goals of the UN.
We understand sustainable ethical and responsible action as a permanent process externally and internally. In this sense, we have established a series of strategic measures to support people to grow and reach their full potential bringing about positive change, in teaching and research.
"My idea of life is to look back one day, have no regrets and see positive results of my work/doing in someone else's life."
Corinna,
Student of B.Sc. Management, Economics and Social Sciences
Developing knowledge and people for a better world
ERS in teaching
Following ethical principles, developing an awareness of one's own responsibility and being able to reflect ethically on one's own actions are important core points in the activities of every human being. We continuously and consistently develop the integration of the principles of ethics, responsibility and sustainability (ERS) in teaching and research. Business ethics is a compulsory subject in all our Bachelor's degree programmes and ethical issues are already part of all existing core subjects.
ERS Commissioner
Professor Bernd Irlenbusch. Head of the Department of Corporate Development and Business Ethics and Ethics Officer of the Faculty, leads as ERS Commissioner the structured initiative to further consolidate this process, leaning on the Giving Voice to Values (GVV) approach.
Education according to Principles for Responsible Management: PRME
Since October 2014, the WiSo Faculty of the University of Cologne has been a signatory of PRME.
The United Nations-supported initiative PRME (Principles for Responsible Management Education) aims to create a global movement and implement thought leadership in responsible management education and research. For this purpose, PRME creates frameworks that promote education according to principles for responsible management . It develops learning societies and promotes awareness of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals.
The Faculty of Economics and Social Sciences has thus voluntarily committed itself to engage in a continuous improvement process of these principles, to report on progress made and to share effective practices with other academic institutions. In recent years, the faculty has thus systematically developed the integration of ERS in teaching and research.
ERS in research
Aligned with our claim 'Today's ideas. Tomorrow's impact’, our research addresses topics that are relevant to society. Together with ECONtribute and C-SEB, our Key Research Initiatives (KRI) are at the forefront of contributing to ERS topics at WiSo.
Endowed Junior Professorships
The establishment of two Endowed Junior Professorships contribute to anchoring the ERS principles in research and teaching:
The Dr. Jürgen Meyer Endowed Junior Professorship for ABWL, Corporate Development and Corporate Responsibility, held by Jun.-Prof. Gönül Doğan, PhD, is located at the Department of Corporate Development and Business Ethics
The CFR Endowed Junior Professorship for Sustainable Finance, endowed by the Center for Financial Research, is held by Jun. Prof. Dr Tobias Bauckloh and is located in the Department of Business Administration and Finance.
Ethics Committee
Ethically reflected and responsibly conducted research is the foundation of our scientific work. We are guided by the Research Code of Conduct of the University of Cologne. It addresses the guiding values of research, the ethical responsibility of researchers in carrying out scientific projects, and central standards for dealing with research collaborations.
The "Ethics Committee of the Faculty of Economic and Social Sciences (ERC-FMES)" supports the responsible conduct of researchers and offers them the opportunity to review their research professionally, independently and appropriately.