Our global student initiative is based on the incredible commitment of our motivated members and supporters from all over the world.
The reality of us being a global community shows the importance and our role on the international level to foster a shared sense of connection and direction, creating a resonance that can nurture our shared commitment.
The local student hubs, and all individual oikees, bring a diverse set of perspectives and
languages to the table.
Therefore, our strategic efforts have the needs of the community and the higher purpose of
systemic change at the core, aiming at addressing and including several of the perspectives.
We actively practice to be respectful towards all.
We understand that we are all representatives of oikos, we have a collective impact and avoid situations that go against our purpose.
We make sole commitments that we can own, understand, keep and operate in a timely manner.
We encourage, help, and allow peers to grow in knowledge, skill, and scope of responsibility, without foregoing coordination.
Our strategic efforts are guided by our values, a sense of purpose and a strategic vision and mission.
These rather stable elements give us direction and emerge out of co-creation or consultation with our community. Whereas values are key to how we want to relate with the world and each other (our ethics), our purpose is the WHY behind what we do and how we do it.
The vision statement renders a destination on the map, whereas the mission elaborates in one sentence how we aim to get there
Out of this co-creative process, our current understanding of our purpose should be represented from the multiple levels we act upon:
Our mission.
Our vision.
Our purpose.
oikos shapes personalities. By addressing sustainability change agents in university environments with tools and programs for self-development and awareness building, the organization enables and inspires its members to move forward on their learning journey and actively contribute to a sustainable world. Programs like the LEAP support the shift of worldviews
With over 45 active chapters in universities with business schools in 4 continents, the organization has a powerful outreach to the institutions that define and equal education. Being organized in a self-managing structure, the single student-led chapters adopt their action portfolio to the local needs and address sustainability in curricular and extracurricular contexts. On the international level, we support this work by calling the chapters and other stakeholders together to co-create the structures of tomorrow’s higher education.
As the subgroups and regions come together to form an international community, the influence of oikos also lies in the strong bonds created between nations, cultures, partners and student change agents all around the world. The glue that holds the organization together: a passion to contribute to a higher cause, to make our world more sustainable by acting on it and collaborating towards the goal.
By following our passion through developing, co-creating and implementing a diverse multi-level, hands-on commitment, we, therefore, contribute actively to a planetary sustainable development with a focus on the societal leverages of higher education and economics.
oikos’ strategy for fostering global impact is built upon three strategic pillars.
Transforming Education
Sustainability has become one of the most relevant topics in business and management - however, in the curriculum of higher education worldwide, the topic is still severely underrepresented.
We are trying to change the system from within the system!
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Empowering our Change Agent Network
Change agents are people who through their own initiative engage in complex societal issues with an aspiration to contribute to systemic change on some scale level.
oikos creates spaces for people to step into this way of seeing the world and put it into practice. We nurture the leaders of tomorrow.
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Strengthening our Organization
The global crisis state, and recently the COVID pandemic renders a new era. We, as a student initiative, sense that there is an increased opportunity for us to contribute to a bigger leap in society.
For doing so, we have to recenter ourselves and align our setup to our increasingly complex environments and the requirements the world poses on us.
Learn moreHowever, in the curriculum of higher education worldwide, the topic is still underrepresented.
Beyond that, the structures and mindsets of higher education are still far from considering or integrating the planetary boundaries. With our student-driven programs and initiatives, oikos international contributes to transforming higher education on multiple levels, mainly using participatory approaches.
Changing the system from within the system!
Our students perfectly match that definition, their value-based actions follow the aim of collaboratively fostering visions and taking action towards sustainability and resilience.
oikos creates spaces for people to step into this way of seeing the world and put it into practice. We nurture the leaders of tomorrow.
Change-oriented leadership is:
...and is considered as essential to develop creative, constructive solutions to our complex organizational and societal issues.
There is a need to foster this kind of leadership to guide society in addressing the sustainability challenge and recover the health of our planet - and this is what we do through our own leadership, our programs and local initiatives, for oikees and friends all over the globe.
Beyond that, we support our local chapters so that they can thrive in their self-organization.
The collective experiences hold the community together -
for over 30 years.
We, as a student initiative, sense that there is an increased opportunity for us to contribute to a bigger leap in society and in our own community as such.
For doing so, we have to recenter ourselves and align our setup to our increasingly complex environments and the requirements the world poses on us - while living up to what we preach content-wise.
It entails a broader strategic discussion about our ways of working and about setting a general direction for our future - which we then can explore step by step.
Fundraising, team structures and processes, our physical location and leveraging our global embrace by bringing the team and the community together online are some core topics.