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The global society is facing a new burgeoning element: an ageing population. Response to the educational needs and interests of older adults requires innovative pedagogies and practices of teaching, research, and community engagement. While traditionally geared towards provision for younger adults, the case is presented that universities have the potential to play a major role in innovation for later life learning for older adults. This article outlines one approach, the Age Friendly University (AFU) and highlights 10 principles that offer a possible guide for innovation and institutional change. The integration of AFU’s mission and principles into three universities is reflected in stories from three university cases in Ireland, the UK (Scotland) and the USA exploring potential merits and also major challenges. It is argued the AFU has the potential to bring social, personal and economic benefits to older adults and universities alike. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper provides an overview of some of the reasons for the extraordinary growth in what was traditionally seen as a peripheral economy on the Celtic fringe of North West Europe. Learning, innovation and social capital offer important clues behind the story of the Celtic Tiger. However, there is a downside to this story: Ireland continues to rank as one of the most unequal out of a group of 18 industrialised countries. Given the global emphasis on knowledge as central to the enhancement of opportunities at the individual and societal level, we focus on one crucially important equity dimension—that of opportunities for participation by the majority of the population, namely adults, in education and training. The question we pose is: to what extent does Ireland offer a model of a knowledge society for all, as opposed to a knowledge economy for some? We highlight a number of implications and questions which we regard as important for Lifelong Learning in Ireland and other members of the ‘new’ Europe seeking to find the ‘miracle’ formula for social and economic development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Discusses the involvement of adults in higher education programs and the widening of access to higher education in Great Britain. Establishment of many institutional initiatives in the 1980s to facilitate such access; Results of a study conducted by the Society for Research in Higher Education; Ages of adults who became students during the 1980s.