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Last week I briefly mentioned that the University of Houston Foresight program was awarded the first accreditation for a Master’s program in Foresight at the World Futures Studies Federation (WFSF) 50th anniversary conference. The WFSF has been developing an accreditation service program for the last few years and launched it a year ago. I have been a member of the Accreditation Council and worked with the team in putting together the accreditation program. I have seen other accreditation programs from my colleagues at the university and I can vouch that the WFSF program is absolutely first-rate.
Our presence in academia is still tiny. Academia has not been a friendly place for small, innovative programs. Universities want numbers. We also have the challenge of fitting both everywhere and nowhere. Universities are still mostly siloed and it’s important to fit somewhere. The field itself is growing but still mostly practitioner-led and not mature enough to have the need for an academic foundation. For more see “state of foresight in higher ed.”
We had a couple of sessions at the WFSF Conference focused on accreditation. When we asked academic futurists how their colleagues at their university responded to foresight, the chief response was “what’s that?” We need to raise awareness and building credibility in academia to build our presence there.
So we must play the long game. Yes, the current context is not favorable. Accepting that, let’s do the sensible things we can. Accreditation services are an established academic practice, so in taking this route we respond to “what’s that” by noting that it is an accredited academic program. When in Rome …. Andy Hines
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