Our universities have huge untapped potential
Academia is not set up to help society navigate today's colliding environmental and social crises. But we can change this.
What if staff and students had more say on how their universities are run, and what they're for?
Our universities have huge untapped potential
Academia is not set up to help society navigate today's colliding environmental and social crises. But we can change this.
What if staff and students had more say on how their universities are run, and what they're for?
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Subscribe nowWe are F4F. Our mission is to help university students, staff, and local communities unlock their institutions’ huge potential to galvanise climate and social justice.
We do this by supporting a network of local university-based groups to run people’s assemblies in order to amplify and cohere existing bottom-up priorities for transformative action, as well as foster new ones. Our flagship project is People-Powered Universities.
People’s assemblies (PAs) are a grassroots form of deliberative democracy, offering a structured way for people to discuss and make decisions collectively, so that all voices are heard and valued.
We support university groups to run inclusive people's assemblies in universities, helping them become:
Widespread: 100+ universities by 2026
Impactful: supported to make tangible progress beyond the assemblies themselves
Networked: a connected movement able to learn from each other, and capable of collectively addressing deeper systemic issues
Permanent: we envision assemblies as a fixture of university decision-making
Get involved
Our story
Faculty for a Future was formed in summer 2021 by a group of academics who felt similarly disempowered and unable to face up to a complex and precarious future.
To find out more about our perspective on this future, please read our analysis of the crisis, a distillation of research at the intersection of social and ecological issues into six key points describing the world ahead. It outlines our understanding of the emerging world and informs the objectives and development of all of our work.
For our thoughts on the role of academia in this crisis, check out our about us page.
Values
Academia has never been value-free. To orient objective academic work towards a safer, fairer, and healthier future, we are guided by four values.
Acceptance: We join the dots between different academic disciplines and lived experience, actively acknowledging the severity of environmental and social crises.
Care: We feel a duty of care to those most affected by these crises, and a responsibility to prioritise life, wellbeing, and justice.
Integrity: We aim to conduct our personal and professional lives with respect, courage, and modesty, towards a better and more equal future for all living things.
Freedom: We seek ever greater freedom to act with care and integrity, so that others can enjoy ever greater freedom to live well.
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