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This article focuses on the need for establishing voluntary responsible bodies for adult education in Great Britain. Several recent articles and research papers have advised that consideration should be given to the question whether voluntary organizations should continue to be allowed to exercise the powers of Responsible Bodies under the Further Education Grant Regulations of the Ministry of Education. The term "Responsible Body" came into general use in relation to adult education after the publication of the "Adult Education Regulations of the Board of Education" in 1924. Those Regulations governed the payment of grants to bodies, not being Local Education Authorities, in aid of the liberal education of adults. They prescribed that each course must be under the control and direction of a Responsible Body, which will be held responsible by the British Board of Education for the efficiency of the instruction given in the course and for the observance of the regulations applicable to it. Responsible Bodies might, suggestively, be of two types: first, universities and university colleges for courses under Chapter 2 of the Regulations, which related to Preparatory, Three-Year, and Advanced Tutorial Classes, Tutorial Class Vacation Courses and University Extension Courses; and second, "Approved Associations" for courses under Chapter 3, which dealt with Terminal and One Year Courses, and Vacation Courses for selected students organized in connection with such classes.

The article presents information on some published sources for the study of contemporary British further education. It is first necessary to define the term British further education. British means concerning Great Britain, that is England, Wales and Scotland, but not Northern Ireland, the Isle of Man nor the Channel Islands. In one sense further education could mean any education undergone by someone who had left school, or was over a certain age, or both; but such a broad usage would cover activities conducted in a heterogeneous lot of establishments or in none at all. Because of this it is more useful to limit the term to a specifically-defined part of the statutory education system. In this article British further education is therefore defined as the education intended primarily for persons who have left school, through provision secured either by the British Minister of Education, by the Secretary of State for Education and Science acting in the capacity of the former Minister of Education, by the Secretary of State for Scotland or by local education authorities in accordance with appropriate Schemes or Plans approved by one of these ministers. Besides, the word sources is used loosely here; it means mainly government publications, reports of committees and conferences, and studies by individuals in published form.

The article discusses the community work in Britain, 1974. The author has reviewed the work of social work agencies whose workers are busy with one of another aspect of community development, community organization, or community action at a local level. Most professionals who regard themselves as community workers, or who have been officially appointed as such, are generally either social workers with a professional training in social work, or people employed in vocational training, adult education or youth work. In the present rather chaotic situation of community work in Great Britain and Ireland, it is worth remembering two questions that are very often forgotten. The grand decisions about regional economic development, the questions concerning the exploitation of natural resources (too often for short-term profit), those concerning the granting of investment funds these are the decisions which exercise the biggest influence on the future of citizens. Such decisions must be constantly reviewed and supervised in a democratic and vigilant way.

This article focuses on the concepts and contributions of English novelist Charles Dickens related to the field of adult education. Adult education is a minority-pursuit which has not received much attention from English novelists. But, Henry James, author of the book "Dickens as an Educator," claimed that Dickens was England's greatest educational reformer and that he had a definite purpose in mind when dealing with every one of the twenty-eight schools that are described in his writings. Litterateurs interpret that Dickens's description of ill-conducted temple of good intentions makes an energetic and sensible protest against some errors, common at the time, in the elementary teaching given at some adult schools and such-like. Dickens coined the word "Kayshuttleworry" to describe oppressive associations of "Boredom and Red Tape" which the word "education" then possessed for the general public. According to the article author, it is not the least of Dickens's merits as a moralist, and as a commentator on adult education, that he insisted on the place in the scheme of things of simple fun and frivolity.