POLIMI Graduate School of Management is the only School in Europe to achieve the highest recognition for the impact created according to the Positive Impact Rating 2025

The Politecnico di Milano business school is the only School in Europe to have achieved Level 5, demonstrating its leadership in all dimensions of its Impact

POLIMI Graduate School of Management - part of the School of Management of Politecnico di Milano - has been recognised  for its social impact and commitment to sustainability in the sixth edition of the Positive Impact Rating (PIR). The report, entitled RETHINKING SOCIETAL IMPACT - A roadmap for business schools to implement positive impact, was presented today at the 2025 PIR Global Summit and also discussed during the United Nations PRME Global Forum.

The need to educate responsible leaders continues to drive business schools around the world to demonstrate their impact on society. The sixth edition of the Positive Impact Rating reflects this trend in terms of both participation and depth: POLIMI GSoM is one of the 86 schools (from 28 countries, representing all 5 continents) that participated in this year’s edition, which saw 17,167 students involved, an increase of 13% over the previous year, and the inclusion of 26 schools evaluated for the first time.

POLIMI GSoM was the only school in Europe to have achieved Level 5 - which qualifies it as a Pioneering School in the PIR, having scored between 8.8 and 10 – demonstrating leadership in all the dimensions of Impact.

The PIR is based on 20 questions, relating to eight indicators (Governance, Culture, Training programmes, Educational methods, Student Support, Research,  Role Model and Involvement with Society), which are divided into four main areas (Motivate, Educate, Enable and Engage). These results classify the world's Business Schools according to their impact at one of five levels, three of which are published: Level 3 (Progressing), Level 4 (Transforming), and Level 5 (Pioneering).

The PIR is a unique evaluation, created by students, for  students. It was designed to give a voice to students, who are the main stakeholders of the educational pathways, allowing them to indicate how the School addresses the challenges of society and sustainability, how it prepares its students to become responsible leaders, and how it should operate in order to improve its positive impact: this is the added value of the rating and is why POLIMI GSoM decided to take part in it for the second consecutive year.

“Receiving the highest level in the Positive Impact Rating 2025 and being recognised as a Pioneering School is a source of great pride for us, but above all, of responsibility. This result encourages us to continue our commitment to the structural integration of sustainability and social impact in every dimension of the School: from teaching to research, up to strategic and operational choices", commented Federico Frattini, Dean of POLIMI Graduate School of Management. “The message that comes from students from all over the world is clear: they want an education that prepares them to face the systemic challenges of our time, not to replicate the models from the past. This is a request with which we agree and which we will continue to translate into concrete, interdisciplinary and real-world experiences. Being the only school in Europe in this category encourages us to act as a bridge between global aspirations and local needs, contributing to the transformation of our educational and entrepreneurial ecosystem.”

The PIR was initiated by a coalition of business school experts and international NGOs such as WWF, Oxfam, and the United Nations Global Compact, and is supported by student organisations such as oikos, AIESEC and Net Impact. It is also supported by VIVA idea (Costa Rica), the Foundation Institute for Business Sustainability and FehrAdvice (Switzerland).