This page lists programs and resources for students seeking the best global graduate education presently available in futures studies (FS) (also known as foresight, strategic foresight, prospective studies, prognostics, futurology, futuring, futuristics, and other terms) and related disciplines. The singular "future studies" is less-preferred as there is a plurality of possible futures. As a futurist or foresight professional, any of these credentials may be helpful to your future career.

Interested in foresight education community? Join the Foresight Education and Research Network (FERN), the largest online social network for current and prospective foresight educators, students, and advocates of foresight education.

For an understanding of strategy to bring academic foresight/futures insights to the organization, and language to use in describing foresight in the corporate environment, see Building Organizational Foresight - Strategy and Terms.

	Overview Program Potentials Primary Programs Undergraduate Centers and Courses Select Secondary Programs Resources

Overview
(Strategic) Foresight, also known as Futures Studies (FS) is a transdisciplinary educational program that seeks to reliably improve one's ability to anticipate, create, and manage change in a variety of domains (scientific, technological, environmental, economic, and societal), on a variety of scales (personal, organizational, societal, global, universal), and using a variety of specialties (theories and methods, see below). Anticipating, creating, and managing change in our increasingly fast-paced, technological and globalized world is an extraordinary challenge, and foresight proficiency provides great social value.

Like Science and Technology Studies (STS), a similarly cross-disciplinary activity, foresight and futures MS and PhD programs can live in a wide range of schools and departments at the university. In the ideal case, such programs exist as independently-funded interdisciplinary centers at the university, able to collaborate on foresight projects with departments and centers across the campus, as well as seek revenues from external university, government, and corporate clients.

Below is ASF's recommended framework for Primary, Secondary and Other foresight specialties in the MS and PhD curriculum.

Foresight Specialties - Primary, Secondary, and Other

We suggest an MS or PhD foresight/futures programs should provide basic proficiency in all the primary foresight specialties (the core curriculum of futures studies), and a survey-level introduction to the secondary specialties (areas important to foresight, but where independent academic degrees may presently be obtained). In a comprehensive foresight program, electives and thesis topics should be possible in primary, secondary and other specialties, per student interest.

We also propose that the best foresight programs should satisfy the following prerequisites and requirements:

Ideal Admission Prerequisites
1. An undergraduate degree (foresight work needs context and maturity, it is best as an MS-and-above degree)
2. Applied, specialized, real-world experience (3+ years incoming experience after undergrad degree)
3. Science, tech, and history (econ, political and social) prereqs or testing, with mandatory deficit remediation

Ideal Program Requirements
1. Broad-based, balanced, integral curriculum (all quadrant, all level, all discipline, globally- and accel-aware)
2. Considers both evolutionary (possible and reversible) and developmental (probable and irreversible) change
3. Measurably improves knowledge (pre- and in-program testing)
4. Measurably improves skills, incl. prediction and change mgmt (validated via prediction markets, tests, etc.)
5. Transdisciplinary. Foresight students should become subject matter experts (SME's) in more than one discipline

Not all of the programs below presently meet these proposed standards. Of course, if you attend one and are an active student, you can do your part to help them raise their professionalism. A handful of current programs are broadly acceleration-aware, most are less so. Other programs to recommend? Edits or corrections? Please let us know.

Primary Programs English-language Instruction
English-language MS and PhD programs in any of the primary futures studies specialties (see above) are listed below.

Primary Programs Other Language Instruction
Non-English MS and PhD programs in any of the primary futures studies subject areas (see above) are listed below.

A partial list of the specific foresight educational frameworks used by the above programs may be found here. Three decades after the first graduate futures studies program emerged (Houston, 1975), there are clearly far fewer primary programs today than we might hope or expect. Foresight professionals must challenge this scarcity in global culture, and do everything we can to ensure our existing programs offer obvious value to students in a world of accelerating change.

We believe that improving, networking, and promoting our best foresight and futures programs should be top priorities for the global futurist community, both academic (WFSF, etc.), professional (APF, etc.) and general (WFS, etc.). As Peter Bishop, Director of the Houston MS program notes, we must put particular emphasis on improving our forsight/futures doctoral programs, which do basic research and produce faculty able to staff new MS and PhD programs. We must also do our best to ensure that the leaders of our primary programs and key faculty in our secondary programs are publishing, practicing foresight professionals.

Select Secondary Programs English Instruction (except where indicated)
MS and PhD programs in secondary futures studies subject areas (see top of page) which either 1) place a notable emphasis on any of the primary foresight subjects or 2) have on-campus futures research centers which may be used for potential affiliations during graduate study, are listed below. Most offer English-language instruction, except where indicated.

For additional secondary programs, see Graduate Programs for Understanding and Managing Accelerating Change. For Jose Ramos excellent 2002 FS survey, with additional program and contact detail, see International Survey of University Futures Courses (PDF, 43 pages). For a list of bioethics programs potentially conducive to scholarship on human-machine symbiosis (transhumanism), see the WTA's Programs for Graduate Studies in Bioethics. For a great but unselective database of graduate programs (US, International, and Distance), see GradSchools.com. Browse All Subjects.

Even with the paucity of primary programs, we believe the breadth and depth of secondary programs, by comparison to previous decades, indicates that foresight work is beginning to be taken seriously both in society and by academics from a wide range of disciplines. This research suggests that business, engineering, science and technology studies, philosophy, sociology, policy analysis, statistics, and urban planning departments are all particularly promising as founding participants in an interdisciplinary, campus-wide graduate foresight program. Yet there are also many more that might be involved. We need to raise awareness of the value of this field across the spectrum of scholarship.

Program Potentials
Programs with historical foresight/futures faculty champions, credential programs with extensive foresight curricula but not yet MS degrees, or foresight-related degree programs at institutions which do not yet have strong US or international accreditation. These institutions are excellent opportunities for further funding and curriculum development.

Our categorization of foresight programs into primary, secondary, and potential is subjective. Please let us know if you disagree. As many students make their choice of graduate study using web-based resources, our classification was heavily influenced by what we could find online about the relevant programs, foresight-related centers, and faculty, at official websites. But at many schools, particularly in developing nations, there is more foresight research and education occuring than can presently be found on the web.

Undergraduate Centers and Courses (U.S.)
Notable U.S. universities with foresight/futures faculty champions and undergraduate foresight centers and courses. There are a few undergraduate degrees in foresight/futures internationally, none yet in the US. ASF recommends that foresight work at the undergraduate level should 1) be integrated across the undergraduate curriculum and 2) offer standalone foresight courses, but not offer degrees.

Resources
Foresight and Futures-Related People, Orgs, and Resources
See ASF's Global Futures Network for a community-edited list of foresight research centers, consultancies, NGOs, associations, and other foresight resources and groups that you might associate with or do an internship at before, during and after your graduate foresight/futures academic program.