BI Norwegian Business School adapts to the needs of society and the business community by ensuring that its education and research are relevant for the challenges of future working life. Through its educational collaborations in the form of customised company-tailored programmes, conferences and professional seminars, BI is a national venue for continuing professional development.
For the second year in a row, BI Norwegian Business School awarded its Presidential Scholarship to Norwegian and international top students. The scholarship covers a master programme of the recipient's choice at BI Norwegian Business School. The success of BI's internship programme continued, and students were given the opportunity to test their theory in practice at companies such as Telenor, Opera Software, DNB and Det Norske Veritas.
BI is a national meeting place for professional input, and contributes to the future of labor.
Educational collaborations with other higher learning institutions have also been on the agenda in 2013. Partnerforum is a member-based forum between the University of Oslo (UiO) and BI which offers seminars and conferences to ministries and state agencies. UiO and BI have agreed to investigate whether an equivalent partnership concept vis-à-vis private business could be sustainable.
BI, in cooperation with NTNU, entered into an agreement with Statoil concerning the development of education programmes within the project management discipline. The framework agreement has a duration of six years, with an option for four additional years.
The collaboration with Fudan University in Shanghai was strengthened in 2013. January 2014 will mark the first time Chinese leaders will be taught by a Nordic business school in creative management and innovation.
In 1999, BI, in cooperation with Innovation Norway, founded the ISM University of Management and Economics in Lithuania. In 2013, BI decided to sell most of its ownership interest to a Lithuanian investor. The academic cooperation between BI and ISM will continue.
BI provides important contributions to social development by communicating research and participating in the public discourse.
BI's faculty set the agenda for public debate within their disciplines in 2013. BI has also been prominent in the debate concerning the structure of Norwegian higher education over the past year.
In 2013, the King's Medal of Merit was awarded to professor emeritus Göran Persson for his work within the fields of logistics and the significance of his work on the development of business and society at large.
Since 2007, BI has collaborated with Save the Children in an effort to give children the right to a quality education. BI's Christmas gift to its employees in 2013 was a donation of NOK 150 000 to aid efforts in the Philippines and Syria organised by Save the Children. BI is also a member of the organisation Scholars at Risk, which promotes academic freedom and human rights for academics all over the world.
BI Norwegian Business School is to be a sustainable and environmentally friendly school that can compare to the premier European business schools. Ambitious goals were set for BI's work on climate and the environment in 2013, and a number of measures were implemented. Energy efficiency measures and climate quota purchases helped BI Oslo to claim the designation of climate neutral in 2013. BI Oslo, BI Bergen and BI Trondheim were all certified or recertified under the Norwegian Eco-Lighthouse programme, whereas BI Stavanger started the certification process for the first time. New recycling systems were rolled out in all common areas at BI Oslo. 16 charging station for electric cars were established in the parking garage at Nydalen. BI does not pollute the external environment.