• Future Generations University is for professionals in community change. You can be an established professional or you can be newly entering. The program will fit you. Your major platform for learning will be your work, and the best of world learning is brought to your work … to help your community improve. At traditional universities, you go to school, then go to work after you get your degree. You will expand your work in learning connections throughout the world.
• This connecting into the world begins in either specific certificate classes or the two-year Master’s degree, but once having entered Future.Edu of world-engaged learning, through the parallel organization (Future.Org), you join a world-circling professional community of applied community change. You do not “graduate” from Future Generations University, but rather you commence into world, stature, professional, practicing discourse of continuing learning.

Accreditation

Future Generations University is accredited by the Higher Learning Commission, the largest and oldest accrediting body in the United States. This quality assurance by a federally-recognized body also meets requirements necessary for the institution to receive and manage federal financial aid funds. The accreditation process also provides a periodic opportunity and incentive for the institution to review, assess, and advance the quality of its educational and financial operations

For the last 15 years, Future Generations University has been dedicated to empowering committed development practitioners by providing a new model of applied higher education. By focusing learning in the communities where these change-makers already live and work, students immediately begin advancing social change with the skills and strategies they obtain.

Future Generations University offers a two-year Master of Arts Degree in Applied Community Change. The program includes five specializations in different areas where communities have the opportunity to grow. Instruction is also offered through a range of focused certificates. Further, the University also conducts and applies research on the effectiveness of community-based approaches for achieving impact in a widening range of areas.

For the first fifteen years (Classes from 2003 through 2017), enrollment was exceedingly selective. Each class typically had 20+ students. The university is expanding now, but remains selective.

To date, the Masters Degree program has prepared students from 40 countries. Since 2003, seven classes (Class 2005, 2007, 2009, 2011, 2013, 2014, 2015) have graduated. Through the 15 years an additional range of students have graduated from the certificate programs.

Our students enter as development practitioners in their own countries. The learning allows them to grow their jobs and communities. The following statistics indicate the engagement of our master’s alumni specifically.

• Percentage of alumni Employed: 95%
• Engaged in similar community work as during Master’s program: 83%
• Working for the same organization as during the Master’s program: 58% (of these 40% have changed jobs within their organization, mostly promotions)
• Working for a different organization: 42% (of these 36% have started their own organization/consultancy).
• Working together on Future Generations Alumni Collaboration Grants: 37%
• Continued on to obtain a PhD, are in, or applying for a doctoral/PhD program: 11%

Please check our eligibility criteria for full details. To summarize, all applicants to the master’s degree are required to: 1) work with a community throughout the two-year program; 2) have a Bachelors Degree or equivalent; 3) be proficient in the English language; and 4) have reliable internet connectivity. Applicants to the certificate programs generally are open to anyone willing to do the work.

No. In most cases, students build their learning experience around their current position or field in order to maximize their effectiveness in these areas, using their current community as a learning platform. If participating in optional residential experiences, which require travel to a host community, the student should first obtain permission from an employer. Apart from these residential options, learning will be based in students’ home communities.

Students at Future Generations University have implemented incredible work making positive changes in their home communities and workplaces around the world (Read about some of their work).

Most students come from admirable low-paying career paths in field like education, health services, rural development, and conservation driven by a passion to help others and secure a better future for their fellow community members.

This means they often have limited funds for continuing education and their community building projects, and rely on the support of generous donors. We hope you will join! When you donate to our academic programs, you are not just funding a single development project, you are opening the door for a series of community-driven efforts led by our students and each additional community leader they train in empowerment methods.

If you’d like to support the next generation of community leaders being trained by Future Generations, you can donate to a scholarship fund for current or future students. You could also work with our financial office to start a special fund for a program of your choice– perhaps you’d like to support students working in a designated field, from a specific country, or you’d like to fund a class focused on a certain area of community change. Visit our donate page for options on ways to contribute or contact us at (info@future.edu).

Our staff will be happy to supply you with additional information ​ if you are a member of the press or simply seek answers to some more questions not addressed on this page. Please email us at graduate@future.edu and we will do our best to give you the information you would like.

You can also contact any of our offices worldwide and meet with the team there.