The PIR is unique in that it is a rating designed for students and coordinated by students in management courses. It is therefore the students who are asked to rate their institution. At UNamur, it's the Faculty of Economic, Social and Management Sciences (FSESG) that is the subject of this evaluation. The aim is to measure how educational institutions contribute to solving societal challenges. Concretely, the PIR asks about twenty questions of students, divided into seven dimensions: governance, institutional culture, curricula, learning methods, student support, role model and its public engagement. At the end of the assessment, each institution is given its overall level of development in terms of societal impact. Five levels of performance are established: beginning, emerging, progressing, transforming and pioneering.

This year, 225 FSESG students took part in the PIR assessment, offering valuable insight into student perception of how UNamur is responding to issues such as sustainability and ethics. UNamur saw its scores increase in four of the seven dimensions including "Governance" and "Programs", reflecting a positive evolution of its curricula and institutional governance.

Students' strengths:

  • Governance: 7.3/10, a stable score that underlines the quality of UNamur's governance.
  • Programs: 7.2/10, marking an increase and highlighting the continuous improvement of study programs.
  • Culture: 7.0/10, despite a slight drop, this score still testifies to a strong institutional culture.

Students were also given the opportunity to formulate a series of recommendations aimed at continuous improvement at UNamur. These included, for example: improving building insulation and energy efficiency, creating more practical courses on sustainability in the broadest sense and business ethics, and making more moderate use of "paper" printing.

All of which are also targeted by various strategies deployed within FSESG and UNamur. For example, for almost 5 years now, FSESG has been implementing the "Learning by doing" reform aimed at anchoring its programs and pedagogies more firmly in societal challenges. It proposes an innovative pedagogical approach, which places students as actors in their training by enabling them to develop their skills in real or close-to-real situations. Applied to all students from the 1st year of secondary school, this approach takes the form of collaborative, cross-disciplinary projects, which become increasingly important as the student progresses through the baccalaureate. Learning by doing" also opens students up to the fundamental values, dear to UNamur and integrated into its Universe 2025 strategic plan, such as civic commitment, openness to the world, sustainability and solidarity. By way of example, societal themes are worked into the projects (sustainable development, corporate social responsibility, inclusion and precariousness, climate issues, democratic challenges, digital inequalities, etc.) and a service-learning type civic engagement activity is offered to 3rd year bachelor students. In another example, with the aim of raising students' awareness of ethics and societal responsibility and developing their critical faculties, all Block 1 students took part in a major "regards croisés" operation during which professors and students from various disciplines shared and crossed their vision during the academic year around the theme "is the sole purpose of business to make a profit?". A year rich in meaningful projects for all...

Stronger student commitment to PIR 2024

For the 2024 edition of PIR, 88 faculties and business schools from 30 different countries were evaluated. Over 15,000 student responses were collected, an increase of 19% on 2023, indicating a broader and deeper engagement with students. At Belgian level, in addition to UNamur, only one other institution is present in the rating (Antwerp Management School).

Read more

Logo PIR