Leeds Metropolitan University has a Strategy and Business Analysis PhD, done through their Business Dept, that is both low-residency and affordable. They also have a former futures studies history with Graham May, as described below. As with U Man, the residency requirements for the Leeds Met PhD are three separate weeks in the UK over the 4-5 year program, quite easily done for those with full-time jobs.

FS-Related LMU Faculty: Jeffrey Gold, Eamonn Judge, and other current Leeds Met Business faculty have already already worked with existing futures PhD students (see below). Dr. Gold, for example, is an expert in leadership and management development, organizational learning and team building, enterprise and SMEs, career development, coaching, OD and organizational change, HRD, and strategic learning. Dr. Judge is professor of economics and spatial policy, and has a broad background in issues of environmental and economic development.

Time: Three years, with typical progress.

Cost: Roughly USD $12,000 plus books for the entire program, which makes it the most affordable we've found.

Graduates: At least two, and perhaps as many as five (we need the full number) folks from our futures community have gone through this Leeds Met PhD with various futures-related dissertations, so it is already an informal futures PhD track. Some of these students had Graham on their dissertation committees, either formally or as an advisor. Verne Wheelwright and Pero Micic recently finished the PhD. Futurist Jay Forrest is presently in it, and Tom Hoffmann may start it shortly. Dr. Gold was the main faculty advisor for Verne and Pero.

In 2007 I discussed doing a futures-oriented PhD with Jeff Gold, who was very helpful. He expected that we'd probably be able to bring to my committee some additional affiliate faculty with futures experience. I then contacted Graham May, and told him that for me a critical factor for doing the Leeds Met PhD would be being able to bring faculty with futures PhDs and/or publishing futurists to my committee. I also said that my ideal would be to be able to see something about Leeds Met's current informal FS PhD track being represented formally on their website.

Graham told me that there is a new Vice-Chancellor/Dean at Leeds Met who is both marketing-savvy and growth oriented, and he encouraged me to approach him with this proposal.

The Leeds Met PhD Pero and Verne got is a Strategy and Business Analysis one. Given this, a business-oriented Strategic Foresight version of this PhD program might be the easiest to propose. Nevertheless, I think we could make a good case why something titled Futures Studies / Strategic Foresight would be even more generally appealing to the global futures community and useful for Leeds Met. Of course either would be a very important advance.

I contacted Wendy Shultz, who lives in Oxford and was one of my PhD instructors in my Houston FS MS program, and told her of these ideas, and she agreed this was a worthy goal and that we should write up and make such a proposal. Under the right circumstances she would become involved with a formally listed futures studies track of the Leeds Met PhD program, perhaps as adjunct faculty, which would be a major coup for the program. She's a great instructor (I had her in the Houston MS Futures Studies program) with broad experience teaching and doing futures work.

Some potential FS Affiliates for the Leeds Met Program are:
Leeds Met's Futures Studies History
For several years, relatively recently (1997-2002?) Leeds Met had the first and only Futures Studies MS program in the UK, under Graham May. The MS was shut down in 2002 due to insufficient enrollment and lack of institutional support. Graham also had an illness at the time and left the faculty. He has only an informal association with Leeds Met now. In 1996 Graham, when he was Principle Lecturer of the Faculty of Design and Built Environment at Leeds Met wrote a great book, The Future is Ours: Foreseeing, Managing, and Creating the Future, one of the best I've found at the undergrad level.

Next Steps:
I have sent this wikipage to Graham May and Jeffrey Gold to get their ideas on next steps.

Update: Dr. Gold says that a practice-based DBA has recently been approved, that he thinks would be ideal for low residency FS students. He will get back to us on cost and other aspects shortly.

Question: Does the Leeds Met DBA also require original empirical research, as with their other PhD?