University Adult Education in Crisis. Leeds Studies in Adult and Continuing Education

This book traces the process by which the British government's formal commitment to increasing access to higher education and expanding continuing education has gone hand in hand with severe cuts in extramural departments, insistence on self-financing, and emphasis on vocational training for regeneration, at the expense of liberal education for personal development and citizenship. Chapter 1 is an outline of the history of university adult education (UAE). The next two chapters detail developments in UAE over the last 20 years and attempt to relate change in UAE to education in the wider university and to the growth of political pressure. The argument is made that UAE is in crisis. Chapter 4 considers recently expressed views on the future of UAE, critiques the rationale of the drive to vocational and professional continuing education, and considers the organization of UAE in the context of the changes of the last two decades. Chapter 5 examines the nature of the university today, scrutinizes recent developments in the patterns of UAE provision, suggests changes to facilitate a serious move by universities into a broader continuing education, and discusses proposals from the political parties and a 1987 White Paper. Twenty-one pages of notes and references, a bibliography of approximately 350 items and an author index are provided. (YLB)