The M.S. Program

Background

The Futures Studies program was established within the University of Houston – Clear Lake School of Human Sciences and Humanities during the 1974-1975 academic year. About 250 students have graduated with the Futures Studies degree since the program’s inception. Many other students have taken several courses without completing the degree program. The number of students enrolled in the program has been about 30-40 students annually over the last 15 years. 

The Futures Studies program has changed significantly since its establishment in 1974. It began with a strong interdisciplinary liberal arts emphasis and now has a strong professional orientation. Program reviews in the 1970s and 1980s found that while the program was exciting from an educational point of view, it was not adequately preparing students to achieve employment goals. This led to a redirection of the program in the 1990s to provide students with a greater degree of entry level skills in forecasting, planning, and other futures-related functions through which they could be expected to find employment.

A Unique Approach To Learning

The Futures Studies Program emphasizes self-directed learning, which puts a premium on time management. Each week students are expected to participatin in dialogs, keep up with readings and lectures (posted online), and turn in assignments. The program relies on a portfolio concept for grading, which involves submitting a collection of weekly assignments as a work product, rather than traditional tests. It is estimated that students spend about 10 hours per week per class. There is a strong relationship among the classes, with the aim being to prepare students to become professional practitioners.

Where Graduates Use Their FS Degree

The emphasis on professional skills and applications has resulted in increasing success for graduates in gaining employment taking advantage of the skills learning in the program. Graduates have found jobs in a wide range of venues.

Several have been employed by leading consulting futures firms, such as Alidade, the former Coates & Jarratt, Inc, the Futures Lab, and the Institute for Alternative Futures. Several others have founded their own consulting firms, including Informed Futures, Infuse, Leading Futurists, New Moon Research, Prospectiva, and Social Technologies. Some have applied their futures skills in launching new business ventures, ranging from successful careers as public speaker to launching several startup ventures.

Many have chosen to apply their futures skills within large organizations and initiated new positions looking to the future. Others were already established in careers and have used the FS degree to enhance and advance their positions with their existing firms. 

Some of these organizations include: American Express, Boeing, Canadian Department of Foreign Affairs, Center for Houston’s Future, Coca-Cola, Congressional Research Service, Dow Chemical, General Electric, Halliburton, Houston Lighting & Power, IBM, Kellogg’s, Mott’s, NASA, Naval Undersea Warfare Center, Pacific Gas & Electric, Perot Systems, Pitney-Bowes, Prudential, Solutia, Swedish Postal Service, Toshiba, URS Corporation, UUNet, Waitt Family. The curriculum is designed with the following attributes:

• Comprehensive – covering the full range of theories and methods of foresight used in the world today.
• Practical – focusing on developing professional foresight skills; knowledge is essential, but the use of that knowledge is always the focus.
• Product-oriented – demonstrating those skills by producing portfolios of professional products (forecast, plans, etc.) in every course
• Interactive – engaging in mutual learning among teachers and all students.
• Networked – linking topics and students with the institutions and the professionals that are practicing futures studies today.

It is intended to achieve these learning outcomes.

Courses

Note: These are courses that have been offered in the past year. With the approval of the program at UH comes some modifications to the current curriculum. Contact Dr. Bishop with any questions.

Level 1 – Overview

• TECH 6311 - Introduction to Futures Studies: An introduction to the methods, practitioners and issues of futures research (Syllabus)

Level 2 – Theory

• HRD 6397 - Special Topics (Social Change): A review of classical and contemporary theories of how organizations, societies and other human systems change over time. (Syllabus)
• HRD 6397 - Special Topics (Systems Thinking): An introduction to systems theory and similar conceptual tools to understand organized complexity with application to modeling, forecasting and problem-solving (Syllabus)

Level 3 – Methods

• TECH 6351 - Futures Research: A review of mostly quantitative and some qualitative and techniques of futures research, such as secondary research, environmental scanning, interviewing and questionnaire construction, Delphi surveys, descriptive statistics, trend extrapolation, economic and demographic forecasting (Syllabus)
• TECH 6353 - Scenarios and Visions: An overview of the important qualitative techniques of visioning and scenario development (Syllabus)
• TECH 6397 - Strategic Planning: A process for scanning an enterprise's relevant environments, setting a direction for the enterprise in the long-term, and aligning people and resources to progress in that direction.(Syllabus)

Level 4 – Content

• TECH 6371 - World Futures: A review of global trends shaping the future of the planet, including the most important demographic, environmental, technological, economic, political and cultural changes going on today. (Syllabus)

Level 5 – Capstone

• TECH 6319 - Proseminar in Futures Studies: A review of futures as a professional discipline and practice, including the latest techniques and the ethics of professional practice (Syllabus)

Level 6 – Master's Option (one of the following)

• Thesis: academic research based on empirical evidence that makes a contribution to futures theory or methodology, resulting in a thesis and a optional publishable article
• Project: professional futures research (forecast, plan, etc.) for a designated client demonstrating a range of professional skills and techniques
• Internship: work with a professional futurist on a broad range of projects over ten or more weeks (400 clock hours), resulting in a report of activities and learning

Courses may be taken in any order, except that the Introduction to Futures Studies should be taken as early as possible and the Proseminar in Futures Studies should be taken toward the end of the program. In addition, students are expected to identify two electives outside the futures studies program, also taken late in the program and generally in a domain of the student's interest and future practice, such as business, education, government, etc