Future Leaders Survey 2007/08
What do applicants to universities and colleges in the UK in 2007 think about the future?
Where do they expect their happiness to come from?
What do they think the world will be like when they are mid-career?
What are the big challenges facing humanity, and who do they expect action from?
When Forum for the Future and UCAS embarked on the second Future Leaders Survey, it was with a mixture of hope and trepidation. Today’s university entrants truly have the hand of history on their shoulders: the first generation to face seemingly intractable global environmental problems right at the beginning of their careers, and the last with a chance to solve them.
As the results of this year’s survey show, they feel this burden, and struggle to feel optimistic about the future – whether in saving the rainforests, achieving peace or ending famine.
But they haven’t given up, and their expectations are very high. As future leaders they know we need action from leaders of today, in business, government, the media and beyond. They also see a much greater role for coercion – for example banning 4x4s in city centres and taxing aviation – than our current culture of voluntarism would suggest.
As you’d expect, fun is still pretty high on their agenda, and like students of any generation they want to see the world, socialise with their friends, and benefit from some of the good things in life. For the world’s billion teenagers, reconciling this lifestyle with the reality of environmental limits is what sustainable development is all about, and is now the defining challenge for leadership both present and future.
The Future Leaders Survey 2007/08 was made possible by sponsorship from Friends Provident.
Download the 2007/08 Future Leaders Survey here
Download the supporting document on selected regional differences
Read Jonathon Porritt's blog entry
Check out Ben Tuxworth's article in Green Futures
You can also read on online version of the report by browsing the links in the menu on the left-hand side.
Forum for the Future
works with leaders from business and the public sector to create a green, fair and prosperous world
Registered charity number 1040519
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help
i don't no what to do
what do you dream
in a rather to simplistic way of putting it, society has become one for younger people who don't have any particular goal or drive to them as past generations did- i.e. the british empire was to children was to go and discover, the cold war to beat the russians, etc.- and as a result everyone is told they can be brilliant, do what ever they want and it is good to be an individual
why? whats wrong with being an average person, i want to become a doctor, if i don't discover a cure for cancer, so what? i don't want to become a doctor to find a cure for cancer, but to save lives
'but if you find a cure for cancer you will save lives' i hear people cry. good, i would feel pleased if i did find a cure- but it isnt a life ambition and that is all i want though.
my life ambition is to buy a home, find a wife and have children- they are the future in every sense of the word and it is what i want. that is more important to me than finding a cure for this, earning £100,000 a year or most things people may add to that list
not everyone is brilliant, or smart- but that doesn't demean them in any way shape or form, we pride ourselves of giving everyone a comprehensive education in just about everything, what will we end with? an entire generation of epople who are expected to be the same, the brilliant dragged to mediocre and the slower ones dragged up. i do art right now- yes i know, nothing like medicine but this IS the truth- i do art right now. and some people are more skilled than i could ever be in some ways such as portraiture. and no amount of practice will make me as good as them ever. am i any less an artist? no. likewise with education, you can't expect everyone to be good at everything, but all you can ask them to do is try
if you try you will one day find something you do have an aptitude for. but the generation of today don't try. they instead go around trying to be individuals, trying to find ways to outdo each other. now we have come to violent extremes with some. they have nothing to work towards in the future, no real beleif no 'common enemy' for want of a better term, they are simply told they can be anything- but they don't truly know what they want.
so many options are thrown to children that they are blinded by it all. i was, that is why i have a medical application to university when i'm doing an art course for a year (i did get an interview as well)
they are not told the work they must do for it
people have grown fat off a series of weak generous governments, expecting to provide for everything, and governments have been led by greedy, self serving individuals, who so long as they get alot of money, are happy to provide. even at council level i have seen this first hand
previous generations have listened to america crying out materialism and money is everything, but they aren't.
we are humans yes, but we are still animals and a part of nature. and we have feeling as animals do. use the empathy you have for other people and do consider what they have been through. i am not saying give away all you have, that is not an answer, making everyone as poor as each other in wallet as in mind to make us all equals is not an answer
look to the future and think on what you want. then consider the future and understand what you really want and what is really a dream however attainable it is or not
To "What do you dream"..
That was an utterly ridiculous rant..
For the vast majority of people in the western world this statement is very true:
You are where you want to be.
Dreams are worth having, yes higher education isn't for everyone but if you really want it then you'll end up getting there. People are unstoppable when they really want to be.
If someone wants a 100,000 pound a year job then they can get it. It won't be instant (and I think from the sounds of it that's what you want - instant gratification) and it might be the hardest struggle of your life but if that is your end goal then you'll get it. Its as simple as that.
All life needs is determination. Of course it would help if everyone was encouraged to do what they are best at but thats not what its like so stop moaning about it, if you really want it changed then dedicate yourself to changing people's views.
The brilliant will never be dragged to mediocre, because they are and always will be just that - brilliant. The intelectual elite will always succeed and the rest will follow. It may not be politically correct but its true. Society needs people to do the bum jobs just as much as it needs the doctors and the lawyers and the accountants.
It is worth telling children all these amazing things they could do, because if they are brilliant enough to do it then they will, why not give people opportunity?
And the generation of today do try, why do you think we have so many people in higher education? - because everyone wants a better life and think they have seen a way to get it, so saying they don't try is a complete nonsene statement.
The only thing that people have wrong is that they don't realise that education isn't for everyone, and that is what society is lacking, in this sense.
And you are less of an artist, you may work harder than the people who have a knack for it but that doesn't make you as good as them at art. All you're saying is that you put more effort in, so you're a harder worker. Essentialy, wake up, rewards aren't based on how hard you try, no matter what you were told at school.
And "people" have not grown fat off a series of generous governments. The lazy have become totally dependant. They are those who would never succeed and are happy to be carried along. Those who actually work and actually have a real goal in life are struggling along recieving nothing from the government. But even at that, they are the ones who make it or give in. And then we see, again, the difference between the great and the rest.
People who want something from life will never give up. No matter what their goal is. Be it a wife and kids, or a great salary or just to be happy. In the end, if you want it enough, you'll get it.
So dreams are worth having, no matter how ridiculous the sound to those around you. Even someone who grows up on a council estate can end up making a grand an hour if that's what they really want.
What ranting!
That was quite a ridiculous rant in itself don't you think? Only ever so slightly righteous! Having said that I only flicked through either of them - seemed to be a waste of time to read anymore. Guess I'm nearly as bad as ye are now!