Awareness of foresight through education in Egypt: a case study from Egyptian university

Abstract

Egypt has extensive expertise and experience in future centres through cooperation between independent research institutes and its external partners. The important step forward will be the combination of this experience and the competence of Egyptian institutions to eventually develop a bottom-up regional community of connected educators, scientists, students, practitioners, policymakers and local communities for future foresight. This paper examines the current state of foresight of future and practices among Egyptian universities' faculty members and students, proposing to increase public awareness and comprehension of foresight of future promotion performance in Egypt. A questionnaire designed based on an intensive online project-based bootcamp was done by entrepreneurship club at Cairo University to increase the participants' awareness of the foresight. The questionnaire was distributed to 173 students and participants who attended the camp from 10 faculties of Cairo University and other Egyptian universities. The findings revealed that students were unaware of the Framework Foresight (FF) program and had poor knowledge. Students' awareness of the FF program correlated positively with educational level, age, gender, and specialization. This work provides an approach to understanding the quality of foresight knowledge used or generated throughout the foresight exercises and their significance in sustainable development challenges.