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The European University Association’s latest podcast series, launching November 2024, tells you about futures thinking and foresight and how to use it for university strategy development.
Hosted by Thomas E. Jørgensen and Anna-Lena Claeys-Kulik from EUA’s Policy Coordination and Foresight Team, we introduce you to the ‘Universities Futures Lab’. The future is always uncertain, but that is all the more reason to work with it, ask ‘What if?’ and use creative evidence-based methods to prepare for tomorrow in the here and now. So, dive into futures thinking, foresight and strategy development and get inspiration from experienced foresight practitioners from universities across Europe.
Why are futures thinking and foresight important tools for universities? In this episode, EUA’s Anna-Lena Claeys-Kulik talks to Chris Luebkeman about how they are used for strategy development at ETH Zurich. Chris explains that when using foresight you need to show your university some tough love, look at the big picture and dare to ask difficult questions. He describes why the future is a strange place for most people to visit, what foresight has to do with storytelling and how to create common vocabulary for meaningful and authentic exchanges about the future across the university.
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Foresight has been used to create TU Delft’s strategic agenda. Beyond that, the university has established a foresight and innovation unit to assist and advise colleagues who want their work to have a perspective on the future. EUA’s Thomas Jorgensen talks to Gert-Jan Scheurwater about managing foresight, risks to universities and the specificities of technical universities.
Delphi is not only an oracle. In this episode, EUA’s Anna-Lena Claeys-Kulik speaks to Toni Ahlqvist about how you use expert evidence in collective foresight processes. Toni explains why universities should study the future as part of their role as societal knowledge providers. He shares his insights from leading foresight process at the University of Turku and provides useful tips for newcomers to the field who wish to apply futures thinking for their own university’s strategy development.
In this episode, Gül Akcaova, Lead Futurist at SURF in the Netherlands, talks about working with the future and technology, as well as how to approach the hype and different possibilities when thinking about new digital technologies like brain-computer interfaces and quantum communication.
Everything digital? What first sounded like a crazy idea became reality during the Covid-19 pandemic. Renato Soldenhoff from Zürich University of the Arts talks about imagining alternatives and organising training in futures thinking. He also speaks about using art and improvisation to communicate on a different level and bringing people together to cooperate.
