The Role of Continuing Education in the Ongoing Changes in Higher Education in the Twenty‐First Century

Reflecting a French perspective, the author presents a scenario whereby universities in the Twenty‐First Century will devote a considerable portion of their time and effort to continuing education (or training) as part of an essential effort to make lifelong learning available to all. This shift in emphasis will, among other things, lead to the transfer of certain specializations from initial education (undergraduate education) to continuing education to be offered on demand in reaction to the needs of business partners and of the labour market. The importance of co‐operative links with enterprise, business, and industry, is bound to increase and to become a crucial cornerstone of higher education in the future. As increasing numbers of adults‐‐mature learners‐‐will be (re‐)entering higher education through continuing education programmes, university pedagogy must adapt itself to these students who will be studying and working simultaneously. University research will also be affected by the emphasis on continuing education. The future of the university is bright provided it opens itself up to society at large, develops an entrepreneurial spirit, and is able to engage in dialogue in the broadest sense.     

Social Implications of the Opportunities for Romanian Higher Education in the New World Order∗

An overview is given of the course of development and the social role of higher education in Romania since the revolution of December 1989. The pros and cons of private higher education institutions are presented with the added note that the existence of these institutions saves money for the Romanian state and subsidizes the salaries of professors teaching in the state institutions. Suggestions are made as to how to improve the teaching/learning environment both for students and for teachers, and a plea is made that higher education in Romania, both public and private, avoid becoming overly market‐oriented. Rather, higher education should contribute to the remaking of civil society.

     

The Shift from Teaching to Learning: Staff Recruitment and Careers Development Policies for the Universities of the Twenty‐First Century

This article examines some of the contextual factors underlying the move from teaching to learning in universities over the next two decades. It considers the major characteristics of and elements in emerging learning processes. It assesses the likely impact of the above on personnel policy and practice in universities and suggests some broader organizational issues for universities as a consequence of the analysis. The article draws on research conducted by the author for two recent international studies, sponsored by the Association of European Universities and UNESCO, and on perspectives derived from various strategic evaluation exercises undertaken under the auspices of CRE.     

Higher Education and the Graduate Labour Market: The ‘Class Factor’

This article reviews the literature on the experiences of working‐class students at different stages of the student life cycle. It examines the factors influencing their participation rates in higher education (HE), their ability to adapt to university life, and their success in the graduate labour market. The article argues that without radical policies that fundamentally change the relationship between social class and pre‐HE qualifications, significant progress in widening participation is unlikely.     

Russian in the University Curriculum: A Case‐study of the Impact of the First World War on Language Study in Higher Education in Britain

The outbreak of the First World War and the emergence of Russia as Britain’s ‘glorious ally’ swiftly changed public attitudes in Britain, which had been largely, but not entirely, hostile to Russia. The sense that Britain needed to cure its ‘abysmal ignorance’ of Russia, coupled with the strong desire to replace Germany, the enemy, as a trading partner with Russia led to the initiation of the teaching of the language at eight or more university‐standard establishments. The material and intellectual foundation of the nascent departments of Russian was a partnership between commercial‐financial and academic interests. Money from business sources was crucial in the introduction of Russian teaching at several of them. It was, however, only at Nottingham that the commercial sector actively tried (unsuccessfully) to control the behaviour of the college by restricting promised funding. Meanwhile, partnership with technical schools in recruiting teachers was a significant feature of the introduction of Russian to the higher and further education sector. Staff recruited consisted of both British scholars and expatriate Russians (or other Slavs). Russian departments or divisions were often actively supported within the university by specialists in other fields, who were strongly of the opinion that any serious university system should accommodate the study of a society and culture as significant as that of Russia. When it became clear after the October Revolution that Russia would not continue to support Britain, France and America in the war against Germany, the withdrawal of interest external to the universities did not cause the immediate demise of Russian studies in higher education; they were by this time established firmly enough to survive for intellectual reasons alone, and indeed they survive to this day in most of the institutions discussed here. University College, Nottingham, later to become the University of Nottingham, exemplifies in microcosm the principal trends and features of the national situation.     

The Learning Society,the Unfinished Cosmopolitan,and Governing Education,Public Health and Crime Prevention at the Beginning of the Twenty‐First Century

The ‘learning society’ expresses principles of a universal humanity and a promise of progress that seem to transcend the nation. The paper indicates how this society is governed in the name of a cosmopolitan ideal that despite its universal pretensions embodies particular inclusions and exclusions. These occur through inscribing distinctions and differentiations between the characteristics of those who embody a cosmopolitan reason that brings social progress and personal fulfilment and those who do not embody the cosmopolitan principles of civility and normalcy. Mapping the circulation of the notion of the ‘learning society’ in arenas of Swedish health and criminal justice, and Swedish and US school reforms is to examine the mode of life of the citizen of this society, the learner, as an ‘unfinished cosmopolitanism’ and also directs attention to its ‘other(s)’—those that are outside.     

Breaking Fresh Ground: Regional Co‐operation in Higher Education

One of the most recent European developments in the internationalization of higher education is the stimulation of regional co‐operation among institutions. In the so‐called border countries policy, Flanders, The Netherlands, and the German Länder of North‐Rhine Westphalia, Bremen, and Lower Saxony are collaborating in different ways to establish an “open higher education space”. Within the framework of this border countries policy, various initiatives have been taken in order to support co‐operation among higher education institutions from the countries involved. Amongst other things, research was undertaken in order to gain insight into the differences and similarities of the programmes offered in the five countries. In addition, the Ministries of Education of the participating countries have begun to allocate funds to institutions that have taken co‐operation initiatives that coincide with the policies of the countries concerned. These two aspects of the border countries policy will be discussed in this article.     

The Construction and Challenges of Australia's Post‐binary System of Higher Education

Abstract

In 1988 Australia commenced the transition to a post‐binary system of higher education as the UK is currently doing. In both countries the generally acknowledged obsolescence of the dual system had provoked the structural change. In Australia, the new direction was also motivated by official concerns that the universities be made more accessible to government priorities, particularly economic priorities, at a time of national economic decline. Unlike the UK, the Australian post‐binary era has been founded on a government programme of widespread amalgamations based upon the universities.

This article explores the process of constructing the unitary system, the difficulties experienced in conceptualising the new order and its impact upon the other provider of tertiary education. The Australian approach has ignored a canon in higher education, that varied structures and types of institutions preserve diversity. Further, in contrast to Britain's gradualist path into a unitary system, Australia moved quickly to form large undifferentiated universities to serve the needs of a mass system of higher education.     

Adult learning: ‘A Key for the Twenty‐first Century’: Reflections on the UNESCO fifth international conference 1997

Experiential learning is part of the canon of the theory and practice of adult learning. However, most of the writing on this subject tends to be normative, i.e. arguing whether or not experiential learning is a ‘good’ thing, or mechanical, i.e. how it occurs and how it can be facilitated. Less has been said about why or how this ‘progressive’ educational idea has become important in educational/training discourse in a period of ‘new right’ government. Drawing on the debates surrounding the notion of postmodernism and, more specifically, the sociology of postmodernism, I suggest that experiential learning offers a space in which the conflicting assumptions and values of the ‘new right’ and ‘new middle class’ (the burgeoning cultural producers and intermediaries) compete for ascendancy, as part of the construction of a ‘common sense’. In general, support from the government for practices that recognize and develop experiential learning have been met with positively by adult educators/trainers, as giving recognition and status to our work. It is suggested that the support for these measures has more to do with the government's desire to restore (self‐)discipline within the social formation. It is argued that experiential learning is integral to postmodernism and, therefore, as adult educators/trainers, in order to understand our own practices better, we need to understand and engage in debates about postmodernism.