CRADALL SeminarGlasgow University
2 June 2010
(Re)invention of tradition: adult education in contemporary higher
education
Professor Maria Slowey
Dublin City University
‘All too often the practice and conventions of our own day are influenced by a faulty view of the past’. For example, it is widely assumed that universities have always:
Had rigorous entry requirementsBeen governed by an academic eliteWith serious, scientific research at the coreThat doors were only opened by establishment of
welfare state‘Yet none of this is true’
Robert Bell and Malcolm Tight (1993) Open Universities: A British Tradition? p12
(2005)2005
University of
Glasgow
2005
‘Adult studentsare neither schoolChildren nor University (undergraduates).Often it is necessary to evolve new techniques to teach subjects in different ways and to move to the hinterland between specialised subjects.’
West of Scotland Joint Committee1947-1948 Annual Report
Schofer and Meyer (2005) The World-Wide Expansion of Higher Education, CDDRL Working Papers 32: Stanford University
CONTEXT OF GROWTH FROM ‘MASS’ TO ‘UNIVERSAL’ SYSTEM
Pace of technological change Pressure of social movements DemographyRising levels of initial educationKnowledge Economy GlobalisationPolicy borrowing- role of international
and intergovernmental agencies
Source: UNESCO (2009) Global report on adult learning and education
Source: Schuller and Watson (2009) Inquiry into the future of lifelong learning, NIACE
Human capitalEquitySocial engagementPersonal developmentSocial cohesionDemographic
Contested conceptions of lifelong learning over 1990s-2000s
Higher education and lifelong learning: longitudinal comparative study
Europe: Ireland, UK, Sweden, Germany, Austria, Portugal
North America: USA, CanadaPacific area: Australia, New Zealand, JapanView from middle income countries from the
‘south’H.G.Schuetze and M.Slowey (2000) Higher education and lifelong learning: internationalperspectives on change. Updated 2010
Conceptualising lifelong learners in higher education
Life stage of student
Mode of study
Types of programmes Organisation of provision
Adult education in contemporary higher education
• Interdisciplinarity• Civic and regional engagement• Translational research• Knowledge exchange• Widening access• Partnership with public, private and NGO sectors• Connecting with alumni• Lifelong learning
A University is a place where enquiry is pushed forward and discoveries perfected and verified, and rashness rendered innocuous and error exposed by the collision of mind with mind and knowledge with knowledge