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This paper aims to provide the rationale for the Students Needs 2025 & Beyond study. Its key purpose was to support the development of an organizational innovation function and to identify potential disruptions or surprises.

This paper is an introduction that supports the collection of articles to follow.

The paper points out three ways in which this study took a unique view of higher education, ultimately focused around a theme of focusing on student rather than institutional needs. It recommends four ways in which the study could be used by the client organization, centered on aiding its innovation function.

This paper is an introduction to the research.

The paper is intended for educators, researchers and administrators to gain a better understanding of the student perspective on what they will need from higher education.

This paper introduces the study that took the perspective of the students in looking at the future of higher education, in contrast to most studies emphasizing the perspective of the institution.

The organization’s core approach to exploring and influencing the future, Framework Foresight, emerged from piecemeal roots in the 1990s to an established method circa 2013. Since then, it has evolved from primarily a teaching tool to a project methodology in its own right. The purpose of this paper is to explore the iterative process that has emerged in which teaching and practice inform and advance one another.

Innovations in technique will be highlighted and illustrated by commentary from project experience. The piece will be providing readers with a birds-eye view into the evolution of a foresight method in both theory and practice.

The continuous iteration between theory and practice, or the classroom and the client world, provides an excellent means to advance the teaching and practice of foresight. Significant changes include three horizons, inputs, drivers, archetypes, rating scenarios and strategic approach.

This paper suggests that closer relationships between academia and the external/client world provide practical benefit by improving teaching and providing more innovative approaches for clients.

The description of the development of this unique approach to doing foresight work provides an example for other programs or firms to emulate.

A research project exploring emerging student needs identified two potentially disruptive shifts for the future of higher education: a shift in balance of power from institutions toward the students and a shift in the purpose of higher education away from job preparation. The research suggests that current drivers are eventually moving toward these shifts but that several “accelerators” may hasten their arrival. The paper aims to describe the process for identifying the emerging needs, the potentially disruptive shifts and key implications for higher education.

A modified version of the University of Houston’s “Framework Foresight” method was used to identify the emerging needs, the disruptive shifts and their implications.

Emerging student needs suggest two potential disruptive shifts for higher education: shift in balance of power from institutions toward the students and shift in the purpose of higher education away from job preparation.

Current institutions of higher education may need to reconsider their purpose, mission and value proposition in light of these disruptive shifts.

Beyond just higher education, there is a need for a larger society-wide dialogue about the emerging future and how to best prepare students for it.

This extensive research carried out from the student perspective suggests disruptive shifts ahead relating to the purpose and future of higher education.

This paper aims to describe the approach used by the research team to explore the topic of future student needs. It described the specific method, Framework Foresight, and how it was adapted to meet the circumstances of topic and client.

This paper focuses on the approach that guided the original research study on which this special issue is based. It describes the use of the Framework Foresight method developed by the Houston Foresight program and how it was adapted for the project.

The paper demonstrates how the Framework Foresight method can be effectively used to explore the future of a topic, in this case future student needs. It points out how it can be adapted or customized to suit particular topic or client needs.

The research focused on the student perspective and identified implications of those findings for higher education institutions and their stakeholders. It did not explicitly focus on how to “fix” higher education or its institutions.

The Framework Foresight method is presented as an effective way to way to explore the future of a topic, in this case future student needs. The paper makes the case that the method develops a solid foundation for developing interesting and useful findings and recommendation for action.

This paper is the first to explicitly identify and describe the application of the Framework Foresight and how it can be customized to explore the future of a topic.

The rapidly changed global context for internationalization (IZN) over the next decade prompted a decision to use a futurist perspective for identifying issues to be considered in the organization’s next strategic plan. This paper aims to report on this project to identify current and strategic issues influencing the future strategy of the higher education (HE) IZN for Thailand on behalf of the Bureau of International Cooperation Strategy and the Office of the Higher Education Commission.

The research approach was a customized version of the University of Houston’s Framework Foresight method. It involved framing the domain with a description and domain map, scanning for signals of change within the domain and emerging issues analysis to produce a set of current and emerging issues. A planning step synthesizes a set of recommended actions.

The key findings reported in this paper are the identification of 14 current and emerging issues influencing the future of the IZN of HE in Thailand. The issues were organized along with the three horizons framework: H1: how are we [currently] doing? H2: what should we do next and H3, where do we want to go? The primary recommendation of this research reported on in this study is to consider the 14 issues for inclusion into the next strategic plan. Seven specific strategic options mapped over three phases were identified as well. The research reported here was carried out for Thailand, but the process could easily be adapted by other countries and other topics.

The modified version of the University of Houston Framework Foresight approach has been applied successfully to many topics. The topic explored here is focused on one nation, Thailand. The authors feel the lessons are, however, broadly applicable.

The ability to use a futurist perspective to identify current and emerging issues is highlighted. The organizing of the issues using the three horizons framework proved to be particularly useful in helping the client to develop a sense of timing regarding the future, that is, when and to what degree to pay attention to the many issues that typically confront any organization.

The use of the three horizons framework in the analysis of the emerging issues provide benefits in two ways in situating the likely timing of signals of change in horizon scanning and “scan hits” both scanning for the identification of issues and organizing the resulting current and emerging issues along the three horizons with H1 current issues: how are we [currently] doing?; H2 emerging issues: what should we do next and H3 emerging issues, where do we want to go? The paper also includes a section exploring the impact of Covid-19 on the likely timing of the issues identified just before the pandemic hit, finding that timing of some issues would speed up, some would stay the same and some would slow down.

Considers branding more in line with bringing forth self‐knowledge and self‐expression than the creation of a cultivated or false self. It's not about selling “new and improved” futures tools. Rather, it's about discovering the inner and authentic you and proclaiming it to your clients. The personal brand is about recognizing who you are and what you do best, and communicating that to clients.

The Association of Professional Futurists (APF) recently held a scenario salon that explored the “Futures of futures.” The centerpiece of the findings was the identification and implications of four critical uncertainties affecting futurists and the futures field. First, is addressing the extremely fragmented nature of the field. Futurists must get better at working together more closely as a field to be successful. Second, is the need to confront our aging tool kit. It is not as if methodological innovation has stopped, but it is seen as largely incremental. Third, is the need for futures to create a unique value proposition that distinguishes futurists from mainstream consultants. Finally, there is the poor public image of the field. This suggests that there is a long‐term task ahead of careful rebuilding the brand of futures through a more sophisticated engagement with the public, especially the media. The APF has formed working teams around these issues. The APF sees a generation task ahead, but is confident that together with our futurist colleagues, we can achieve our goal of a “credible profession, thriving professionals.”

The purpose of this paper is to take up the challenge of Slaughter's Biggest Wake‐up Call in History to look for solution in the interior aspects of the Integral perspective by focusing on long‐term patterns of changing values in individual interior (the upper‐left “intentional” quadrant of the Integral matrix).

The paper applies the author's research on long‐term patterns in individual values changes. It takes a developmental perspective, suggesting a consistent direction of change in individual values, drawing on an analysis of 20 values systems described in the literature.

The findings suggest that the long‐term values changes offer both hope and concern for addressing the global emergency. The hope comes from development in postmodern and integral values, suggesting that the rise of postmodern values could lead to greater awareness of the global emergency and that the rise of integral values in particular could lead to greater action in addressing it. A concern is that modern values suggest priorities reinforcing the trends and developments, such as a massive rise in consumption, driving the global emergency and that these values are increasingly prevalent in the emerging markets that make up the largest share of the global population.

The most important area for further research would be to develop an accurate measure of the prevalence of the types of values present in the world today.

The impacts on society suggest important timing questions for addressing the global emergency. The growing presence of modern values reinforces the trends driving the emergency, while the rise of postmodern and integral values suggests potential for moving toward solutions. It is not clear which set of values will end up having the greater impact: modern values could intensify the emergency before postmodern and integral values are sufficiently developed to drive solutions.

The synthesis of research on long‐term pattern in values shifts and its application to global emergency discussion adds an element of richness to the discussion of the role of interior aspects of the integral perspective. Futurists and others concerned with the global emergency will have greater insight into the need to deal with the spread of modern values in the emerging markets, as well as greater insight into the need to cultivate the spread of postmodern and integral values and enlist the support of those having those values in working on solutions to the global emergency.