Youth Talks is "Project Zero" of the Higher Education for Good Foundation, whose mission is "to help higher education institutions transform their curricula to meet the needs of the mid-21st century and ensure a more sustainable future." The intent was to consult young people (15-29 years old) on their aspirations, their concerns, and what they need to build this sustainable future.

With the help of a scientific committee, the Youth Talks team made a number of radical design choices for this consultation. It would only ask a small number of open questions (eleven), so as not to lock respondents in predefined boxes. It would not focus the questions only on education, so as to better understand what the goals of educational activities should be. It would rely on partners and "ambassadors" -- as well as social media -- to reach the highest and most diverse possible number of young respondents.

55,000 respondents

The result: close to 1 million answers from 55,000 respondents in 212 countries, analysed by a combination of (pre-Generative AI) natural language-processing tools and humans, both researchers and experts in large qualitative surveys (Bluenove). Some of the answers were also compared to those of statistically representative international samples, leading the team to believe that, although the answers mostly came from self-selected respondents, the analysis can reasonably be considered as representing what "Generation Z" has in mind.

The survey's report thus provides a quite unique view of how these young people see the future, and their place in it.

Hopes and worries about the future

The first questions were about the future, and what respondents wished and worried about, both for themselves and for the world. The responses highlighted a significant divide between "the West", which puts personal happiness first in terms of aspirations and money first in terms of worries, and the rest of the world, where people seem to focus more on their success, their achievements, and the risk of failing to reach them. Marine Hadengue, who directs the project, connects the search for "happiness" in the West to a well-documented mental health crisis, largely due to isolation and addiction to social media. The issue of mental health will be the focus of Youth Talks's third consultation, expected to begin in early 2026.

When thinking, not about themselves, but about the world, young respondents overwhelmingly place two issues at the top: wars and conflicts, and environmental issues. When asked about the collective issues that need to be addressed, three answers come on top: environmental issues, discrimination and inequalities (this one mostly in the West and in Latin America), and what the Youth Talk analysts calls "the individualism paradox", i.e. the perception that individualism, which can be an aspiration, comes with a lack of cooperation, empathy, understanding, or even intolerance, bigotry and hatred. This section of the report concludes: "Concerns about wars and conflicts, alongside economic inequalities and depletion of resources, reveal the paradox between aspirations of peace and social justice and the realities of a world troubled by tensions and disparities. How can we find our way in a world that aspires to stability when we are constantly jostled by conflicting forces?"

What we might or might not renounce

The next questions were about what young people were, or not, ready to sacrifice for the future. Here, the responses differ significantly from one region to another. What transpires, though, is that young people seem more willing to sacrifice material resources (money, time, consumption items) than personal (well-being) and social (relationships, but also identity-affirming lifestyles). It is easy to mock the answers as reflecting a lack of will to give up many unsustainable practices. However, other responses point out the (well documented) limits of individual gestures towards sustainability. The responses to these difficult questions can also be read in a different light: young people are in the process of finding their place in a world that may not seem as full of opportunities, or even seem more threatening, than the one their elders grew up in. Youths are therefore not readier than their elders to give up the core (material or immaterial) resources that may help them find this place, and be resilient in the face of difficulties. Also, in many cases, they do not own that much that is theirs to sacrifice.

What education should do

According to Marine Hadengue, the answers to the question "To build up this desired future, what we must all learn at school is..." yielded some of the most unexpected results. "The top answer given by young people is to learn or relearn personal values and virtues that allow people to "live together" in harmony. They mention areas such as respect, kindness, solidarity, moral values in general, tolerance, openmindedness, empathy, acceptance, responsibility, friendship, love, and more. This result, coupled with the near-total absence of traditional skills and aptitudes such as science, technology, engineering, math, social sciences, and the humanities, all of which are traditionally taught at school, is staggering. All over the world, the youth are practically shouting at the top of their lungs about the urgent need for a foundation of values and virtues on which to develop our social relationships and interactions with each other, and bring them back into harmony." Only China seemed to give precedence to more classic knowledge.

Hadengue insists: these are not "soft skills", they are core attitudes and values needed to "make society", recreate or strengthen social connections. According to her, education -- and commercial corporations -- insist on equipping young people with tools, techniques and knowledge, which are all useful, but only if the foundations of the societies they grow up in remain strong.

How important is Climate Change in these futures?

As can be seen, climate issues are highly present in young people's minds, but they are far from the only ones. A world (or a country) at war can not focus solely on climate. Climate issues harm young people's sense of futurity and generate anxiety, but so do conflicts, polarization, addiction to social media, isolation, or the lack of opportunities to grow up as an autonomous person. When thinking of sacrifices, many young people probably have the environment in mind, and they seem ready provided these sacrifices make sense and are compatible with them finding their place in the world. "It's not a matter of priority", says Hadengue, "rather of sequence. You need healthy, secure individuals to deal with the climate crises." Especially because young people seem highly conscious that, if the sacrifices are theirs to make, it is because those who are currently in power failed to make them.