Academic mission of the federation
The federation exists to support and encourage high quality, innovative, foresight education through-
out the world. It encourages and supports the development, advancement and dissemination of
futures studies and foresight education. It provides standards for peer review of foresight education
programmes and recognizes high quality programmes through specialized accreditation. World Fu-
tures Studies Federation Accreditation Standards.
So what is the ambition of the project?
The idea is further to create a unit of the World Futures Studies Federation that could offer spe-
cialised program accreditation in Futures Studies. The main outcome would be to stimulate WFSF
recognition of high quality foresight graduate programs by specialized accreditation of schools and
colleges within universities. This could be realized through the offers of external leverage to futur-
ists who serve as tertiary academics to improve funding for their education program. Furthermore, it
could generate a very welcomed additional revenue for the general budget of the Federation. In addi-
tion, the WFSF could be a guarantee for licencing the use of WFSF Accreditation seal/logo by universi-
ties, and advance futures research through academic excellence.
Accreditation philosophy
The Federation was guided in its development of its accreditation process and standards by a philos-
ophy of quality assurance and continuous improvement. That philosophy is as follows:
Accreditation should emphasize the intellectual and professional value that a foresight pro-
gramme affords to its students and graduates.
Accreditation of degree programmes are based on an institution’s responsibility for the quality
of their programme(s) and should be linked to the mission of the department, unit, school or
college in which it is housed, and the university which offers the degree.
Accreditation should verify the effectiveness of an institution’s internal quality assurance. It
should offer new perspectives and act as a catalyst for programme improvement.
Accreditation should be sufficiently rigorous to ensure that only high quality programmes will
qualify for accreditation.
Accreditation standards should be reliable, useful, pre-defined, published, and implemented
consistently.
Accreditation should be flexible and useful to broad range of missions, departments, schools
or colleges and universities, which operate under diverse legislative frameworks.
Accreditation processes should include programme self-study, external peer review, evaluation,
external judgement based on standards, institutional award, and periodicfollow-up.
Accreditation actions by the federation should be published and accessible to the academic
community, irrespective of whether the process leads to formal approval.
Accreditation should be a transparent, evidence-based process carried out by panel of inde-
pendent experts that challenges schools to continuous programme improvement inforesight
education.
Accreditation should be conducted over appropriate intervals to ensure that accredited pro-
grammes continue to offer high quality foresight education.
Accreditation processes should encourage innovation and experimentation, growth and quality
in foresight education.
Accreditation processes and fees should be minimized to provide a tangible cost/benefit rela-
tionship for programs, departments, schools or colleges and universities.
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HF | Human Futures 53