A 10th anniversary synonymous with the reaffirmed ambitions of the Montpellier Business School Foundation for Equal Opportunities
On the 23rd of November, the MBS Foundation for Equal Opportunities organised its traditional scholarship and grant presentation ceremony. This year, emotions ran particularly high as the foundation celebrated its 10th anniversary and presented its new name, new logo and ever increasing ambitions for the future. Its aim? To sustain and develop the MBS social policy through the dynamics of fundraising.
Since 2007, the year of its creation under the auspices of the Fondation de France, the MBS Foundation for Equal Opportunities has enabled more than 300 students to benefit from direct financial aid, amounting to a total of 4 million Euros. After ten years of existence and development of its actions in favour of national and international scholarships and grant holders selected on academic and social criteria, it was renamed the Montpellier Business School Foundation for Equal Opportunities. To further mark the clear development that lies ahead, it has also adopted a new graphic identity. This development will include the implementation of a strategy to raise more direct funds by mobilising former beneficiaries who are now managers, directors and entrepreneurs, working both in France and internationally.
The Dean of Montpellier Business School, Dr Didier Jourdan, explained at the opening of the 2017 award ceremony: “It is a pleasure to launch this event in honour of the 10th anniversary of our Foundation under the auspices of the Fondation de France. Of course, we could not have done all this without the help of the partners behind its establishment, without the help of the companies who have joined us, and without the help of the MBS employees who have made this commitment to diversity and equal opportunities an issue that has progressively given meaning to our institution”.
Mr Christophe Daubié, Chairman of the executive committee for the MBS Foundation for Equal Opportunities, followed with a word of congratulations and a ‘mission’ for new beneficiaries: “You will become ambassadors of the Foundation, especially during your professional life. We are counting on you to ensure that many other students in the future can also have this chance”.
Returning to the present, this ceremony demonstrated the importance of this policy with the official presentation of the scholarships and grants to the 2017 beneficiaries, including the Excellence Scholarships (complete exemption from tuition fees), the International Excellence and MBS Dakar Scholarships (funding of both tuition fees and living expenses for young talents from countries in great economic and social difficulty), the Academic Encouragement Scholarships (exemption from half of the current year’s tuition fees), the honour loans, the Pierre Farouz Scholarship (HR Director of EMEA Oracle and President of the MBS Social Committee) and, new this year, the MBS partners’ Academic Encouragement Scholarship. After the hearings and last Social Committee meeting, a total of more than half a million Euros of direct aid was awarded to more than 70 MBS students.
During this 2017 edition, a broad overview was provided of the different actions inherent to the MBS diversity and equal opportunities policy with a particular focus on apprenticeships, which has been largely developed during the past 20 years (more than 1,200 apprenticeships are currently in progress), the twenty or so supervisory positions across various MBS departments, tutoring programmes and involvement with FACE Hérault. Another highlight was the presentation of a cheque for €6,892 to Enfance et Partage, which represented the money saved by MBS this year thanks to its ‘No Goodies’ policy during the admissions period.
