40th anniversary of the international organization PIM

PIM (Partnership in International Management) was one of the first international networks of management universities. It was founded in 1973 by three prestigious universities: HEC Paris, New York University – Stern School of Business and London Business School. Today PIM has 60 members from 37 countries around the world. VSE has been an active member since 1999.

Celebration of the 40th PIM anniversary took place during its annual conference, which was held this year from 6-8 November in Beijing. The conference was jointly organized by Tsinghua University School of Economics and Management and Peking University Guanghua School of Management.

At the beginning of the 1970s, PIM was an exceptional program mainly because of the reciprocal semester exchanges at the master’s level (MBA programs in the USA), where usually high tuition fees for foreign students were waived and schools mutually recognized courses studied abroad. A surge in the number of members began with the political changes in Central and Eastern Europe and the opening of new markets in Latin America and Asian countries. In 1989, PIM had only 12 members but in the 1990s, another 28 new universities were accepted. The significant contribution of Rector doc. Ing. Jaroslava Durčáková, PhD. has to be stressed, as she facilitated the acceptance of the University of Economics, Prague as the first member originating from former socialist countries. In 2001, Warsaw School of Economics and Corvinius University of Budapest became members of PIM. “Eastern” enlargement likely ended with the acceptance of the St. Petersburg University in 2008.

The PIM admission procedure is very difficult. Every year dozens of applications are received and for instance this year only one school, Korean university KAIST Business School, was accepted and two schools have become candidates for admission in 2014 (Kellogg School of Management, USA and Koç University, Turkey). The objective of PIM is to maintain its exclusivity, quality and prestige. Member schools are required to have regular exchange agreements with 20% of PIM member schools. VSE meets this rule seamlessly, because PIM member schools form the basis of the exchange program. For example, in academic year 2012/2013 160 exchange students were sent to these schools and others studied under the master’s program in International Management – CEMS MIM, as most members of CEMS are also involved in the activities of PIM. Another requirement for membership is active participation of representatives of the school’s management at the annual conference. This participation is a guarantee of compliance with the commitments and because of personal contact, it also reinforces the creation of other projects, such as joint degree study programs, organization of summer schools or expanding options of exchanges for undergraduate study.

More information: http://www.pimnetwork.org/