1999
The Futures Project is founded and organized, its mission and ideas are formulated.

Received grants from the Pew Charitable Trusts and the Ford Foundation.

2000
In our first full year of operation, we investigated domestic and international trends in higher education to determine whether the field was becoming more market-oriented and competitive.

	Co-hosted the conference, “Higher Education and New England’s Future: Scenarios and Choices,” in collaboration with the Education Commission of the States and the New England Board of Higher Education.
	Publications included “Saving Higher Education’s Soul,” an article by Frank Newman that appeared in Change magazine.
	Made presentations to the Rhode Island Commissioner of Higher Education, Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development’s Institutional Management in Higher Education forum, National Association of Universities and Colleges of Canada, and American Association for Higher Education.
	Worked with the Rhode Island Board of Governors for Higher Education to examine for-profit educational institutions. We authored and issued a report and testified before the board.

2001
The Futures Project ramps up to address the results of our study in the previous year: colleges and universities are indeed behaving in profoundly new and different ways. The system is acting more like a market, and competition has taken hold.

	Project-authored articles and opinion pieces were published in Change magazine, Chronicle of Higher Education, The Detroit Free Press, and The Providence Journal.
	Co-hosted “Privileges Lost, Responsibilities Gained: Reconstructing Higher Education” with the Center for Higher Education Policy Studies (University of Twente, Netherlands) and the Centre for Higher Education Research and Information (Open University, UK).
	Made presentations to the American Association for Higher Education at its annual national conference, Association of Commonwealth Universities’ Conference of Executive Heads, National Academy of Science, Association of American Colleges & Universities’ national conference, American Council on Education, Business Higher Education Forum, The University of Twente (Netherlands) Center for Higher Education Policy Studies, Aspen Institute, Pennsylvania State System of Higher Education, and URI Breakfast Roundtable.
	Received grants from the Ford Foundation, Atlantic Philanthropies, Carnegie Corporation, and Rockefeller Foundation.

2002
In 2002, we began to explore the opportunities and risks of the market. Key questions: Who is helped and who is hurt? Is privatization good for the public? For the institutions?

	Through an informal partnership with the National Conference of State Legislatures, the Education Commission of the States, and the State Higher Education Executive Officers, we hosted seven focus groups with state legislators, faculty, and academic presidents that enabled us to build a constituent base and have in-depth conversations with them about their views on competition. We issued a report on those focus groups, “Meeting the Competition: College and University Presidents, Faculty and State Legislators View the New Competitive Academic Arena,” which received broad coverage in the higher education media, including the Chronicle of Higher Education and University Business, and was featured in ECS e-connection, a weekly email sent to state legislators and the education community.
	Published an op-ed piece, “Dealing with US News college rankings,” in The Providence Journal and authored the cover article for the May 2002 issue of State Legislatures magazine, “The New Competition for College.”
	Made presentations to the Council for Higher Education Accreditation’s Annual Meeting, American Association for Higher Education’s National Conference, national conference of the National Education Association, Association of Commonwealth Universities, International Association of University Presidents, State of Washington legislative session, National Academy of Sciences, Southern Connecticut State University, national conference of the Association of American Colleges & Universities, Coalition of Urban and Metropolitan Universities (Vancouver, Canada), Rhode Island Board of Governors of Higher Education, Middle States Commission on Higher Education, and National Forum on Higher Education for the Public Good.

2003
We have found that the market offers both promise and danger. In particular, low-income and first-generation students are at risk as incentives push the market in ways that increasingly draw higher education away from serving the public good. New policy ideas are needed to steer the market, thoughtful intervention is required. This drives our work.

	Project Director Frank Newman delivers “Higher Education in the Age of Accountability,” testimony before the Committee on Education and Workforce, US Congress.
	Two Project-penned articles are published: “Balancing State Control with Society’s Needs” in the Chronicle of Higher Education; and “‘Quotaland’ for White Privilege,” in The Providence Journal.
	Presentations are made to the Association of University Administrators (Derby, UK), International Meeting of University Administrators (Kingston, Jamaica), American Association for Higher Education, American Association of Colleges and Universities, Jobs for the Future’s “Double the Numbers” Conference, Association for the Study of Higher Education, and “Universities Challenged” Conference (London, UK).
	Grants are received from the Atlantic Philanthropies, GE Foundation, and Lumina Foundation.

2004
We are currently focused on promoting the public purposes of higher education and renewing the compact between states and their institutions. To this end, we started the Pressure Points campaign to move states into thoughtful debate and action.

	Publications include the hardcover book, The Future of Higher Education: Rhetoric, Reality, and the Risks of the Market; the chapter, “Balancing Autonomy and Accountability in Higher Education,” in the book, Double the Numbers: Increasing Postsecondary Credentials for Underrepresented Youth; a research report, In Their Own Voices: Conversations with College Students from Underrepresented Populations, and the article, “Rhetoric, Reality, and the Risks,” in American Academic.
	Conducted “Policy Listening Tours” in Texas, New Mexico, Virginia, North Carolina, and Florida as part of the Achieving the Dream Initiative for the Lumina Foundation for Education.
	With the American Council on Education, hosted Presidential Roundtables on Autonomy, Accountability, and Privatization.
	Presentations are made to the Nebraska Board of Regents on Privatization, Council for the Advancement and Support of Education, Campus Compact, Microsoft Higher Education Leaders Symposia, American Association of Presidents of Independent Colleges, Community College of Rhode Island, American Association for Higher Education, and the Council for Higher Education Accreditation.
	Received a grant from the GE Foundation.

Contact us