Envisioning the future: Bachelor's and master's degree students' perspectives

Abstract

Education is a future-facing activity. Therefore, universities need to engage students in building alternative and preferable future scenarios and reveal features of unsustainability, as well as open spaces for students to participate in discussions and negotiate new meanings. This paper reveals the future visions bachelor's and master's degree students from one of the regional universities in eastern Latvia have of education and focuses on a sustainability analysis (sustainable and unsustainable) of societal aspects and education. The authors conclude that thinking about preferred futures make students more aware of the positive changes that could be made and their personal responsibility to contribute to these changes. In this connection, the need to take a broad, integrated and holistic view of the future and its social and personal significance is of utmost importance.