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UNESCO and Lifelong Learning: The Road to and From Belem There can no longer be any doubt that adult education within lifelong learning is a key factor for economic and social development, as well as being a human right. New policies for adult education must now result in coherent forms of laws and legislation clearly spelling out ways and means for financing adult education. These must involve the public, private, and non-governmental organization (NGO) sectors, social partners, and individuals. As studies for CONFINTEA VI demonstrate, change in most countries is slow and not far-reaching enough, especially because of too low a public sector investment in human resources. In the current global financial crisis things are getting worse, and the gaps between those with and those without are widening at all levels. The need to reverse this trend is urgent. What is being done about it, especially by the key international body UNESCO? The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) now has 193 states and seven associates in membership. It was foreshadowed in 1942, the year after the United States entered World War II, to provide ways and means for reconstructing systems of education once peace was restored. The United States was a central partner in its formation. UNESCO came into force on 4 November 1946 after ratification by twenty countries and held its first General Conference from 19 November to l0 December 1946 with the participation of 30 governments. The first International Adult Education Conference was held three years later in 1949. The sixth conference in a series sustained over 60 years, CONFINTEA VI, was held in Belem in Brazil in 2009, with 1,125 participants from 144 countries and representatives of other international agencies, non-governmental organizations, and learner associations. UNESCO is now carrying out a follow-up strategy in an endlessly patient cycle of activity, concentrating on three aspects with actions at national and regional levels: policy development, improvement of provision and quality, and data collection and documentation of progress. UNESCO already has a schedule of activity running through to mid-term, which is halfway through the time before the next CONFINTEA is due. Most immediately, UNESCO's follow-up strategy looked to the UN Summit on the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) from 20 to 22 September 2010. This meeting was embraced as a precious opportunity to disseminate the Belem Framework for Action (UIL, 2010), making the case for adult literacy and adult learning being central to the achievement of all the MDGs. What has this unceasing activity achieved, and where do we go from here? Unfortunately, the importance of quality youth and adult education, training, and learning was again not recognized as a major factor that helps in achieving the MDGs. So, challenges beckon and we still have much work to do. Some may want to start by further familiarizing themselves with the eight MDGs agreed upon by member countries at the Millennium meeting of the United Nations in 2000, available at both the United Nations and UNESCO websites. Namely: 1. Eradicate Extreme Poverty and Hunger 2. Achieve Universal Primary Education 3. Promote Gender Equality and Empower Women 4. Reduce Child Mortality 5. Improve Maternal Health 6. Combat HIV/AIDS, Malaria, and Other Diseases 7. Ensure Environmental Sustainability 8. Develop a Global Partnership for Development For a better understanding of the goals and targets of the Millennium Declaration and the accompanying indicators for monitoring progress, see the official United Nations site for the MDG indicators (http://mdgs.un.org/ unsd/mdg). For further inquiry see also UN (2010). UNESCO became rather politicised in the difficult Cold War era; its fourth big conference, in 1985, was fraught with power bloc difficulties, yet managed to achieve significant results. …

The UK higher education community is well served for news and policy discourse by the weekly Times Higher Education ( THE). THE also provides a window into the conduct of this community. Concern about the contribution of research to the wider society beyond academe has risen along with its scale and cost. Views became polarized about the possibility and desirability of measuring ‘impact’ as a basis for allocating funds for research. The ‘impact debate’ is entangled with efforts to assess the quality of research, and thus in turn with the recent rapid rise to prominence and influence of competitive worldwide rankings of universities, so far informed principally by research performance. Within this wider setting, the paper concentrates on the nature and effect of public controversy about impact in the UK, as expressed in THE over a two-year period. The author's main interest is in the contribution of universities to balanced social and economic development, nationally and especially regionally. It is proposed that the defensive positions taken by some opponents of impact assessment may damage universities' capacity to behave as responsible regional citizens, and weaken the wider community's support for universities that is needed for their public funding, helping to precipitate what critics fear.

The national and international development agenda looks at education as an important tool for transformation and change. Within education most attention is given to schooling and the wider formal sector of colleges and universities. Much less attention and still less resources go to youth and adult learning, and the non-formal education sector. Lifelong learning systems have yet to be implemented. Chris Duke and Heribert Hinzen describe the major processes, programmes and organizations such as EFA, CONFINTEA, ICAE and discuss them in the context of development issues.

Extramural liberal adult education (LAE), as conceived in the particular UK tradition, was doomed by its high-minded origins and its privileged status, and contributed little to the new concepts of éducation permanente, lifelong learning, the knowledge society, the learning society and region, or to the new understandings of university engagement and regional development becoming prominent with the new millennium. The recent introduction of equivalent or lower qualifications (ELQs) is likely to bring about the complete demise of the tradition. Meanwhile ‘the university’ grows and changes in diverse and important ways and directions little informed by the commendable and abiding purposes for which extramural LAE was founded, although this might benefit from the socially informed liberal perspectives of and the facilitation skills honed in extra-mural departments (EMDs). University engagement in regional development has become unbalanced towards the (neo) liberal economic and the technical/skills agenda. Universities as well as regions are the poorer as a result. As the world experiences new forms and intensities of economic, environmental, geopolitical and cultural crisis, rebalancing in favour of a wider civic mission becomes the more urgent.

Predicting whether higher education systems will lead to wider and more equitable participation calls for multiple perspectives going outside the European and Anglophone worlds, and beyond looking education also to other sub-systems of society and government. This reminds us to consider need as well as supply and demand, the importance of place and regions, and the new salience of ‘engagement’, as well as the vital importance of different cultural contexts for what they determine and allow for universalising higher education systems. More or less deep-reaching curriculum changes may occur. Seven different possible models for the future of HE are proposed, concluding with a prognosis as to what scenario is likely to prevail.

This paper considers the idea of a university as it exists and is discussed in Australia at the beginning of the 21st century. Australia's history and partly derivative culture provide the relatively unintellectual context for sceptical utilitarianism in relation to a system which has expanded rapidly and is frequently described as being in crisis. Resource constraints and pressures to marketise and become more entrepreneurial have increased managerialism at the expense of a perhaps mythical ideal of a community of scholars. Different interests, influences and ideals jostle in a process that continues to determine the character of higher education, and the character of the different institutions that comprise the sector. The influence of national politics is recognised, including the possibility of softening the extreme free market position of recent years.

National planners struggle to formulate policies which will enable mass higher and universal tertiary education systems to meet diverse needs for lifelong learning in a knowledge society. Institutional leaders experience ambiguity and stress in seeking an identity appropriate to their particular university in a contradictory policy environment which gives mixed messages. With high levels of stress, multiple conflicting demands and scarce resources, there is a natural but short-sighted tendency to manage more tightly and prescriptively as a way of trying to ensure productivity and accountability. This analysis from a large, broad-based and deliberately innovative Australian university examines these tensions. The new RMIT leadership has set out by transparent and participatory means to diagnose its environment, restate its mission and strengthen internal and external partnership to do its work. Networking and engagement are essential for a knowledgemaking and knowledge-using institution to learn and contribute effectively. However, contradiction and uncertainty in the policy environment, which reflect wider societal ambiguities, make this a daunting task...

Les planificateurs nationaux s’efforcent d’elaborer des politiques qui permettront aux systemes d’enseignement superieur de masse et d’education tertiaire universelle de satisfaire aux besoins d’une societe du savoir en matiere d’education tout au long de la vie. A la recherche de l’identite propre de leur universite dans un contexte d’orientation conflictuel qui leur renvoie des messages contradictoires, les dirigeants des etablissements sont en butte a l’incertitude et au stress. Face a l’elevation des niveaux de stress, a la multiplication des exigences contradictoires et a la rarefaction des ressources, il y a une tendance naturelle, mais qui traduit un manque de perspicacite, a raccourcir les renes pour garantir la productivite et la responsabilite de l’etablissement. La presente analyse d’un gros etablissement universitaire australien polyvalent et deliberement innovant examine ces tensions. La nouvelle direction du Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology a commence, en appliquant des principes de solidarite et de transparence, a diagnostiquer son environnement, a reformuler sa mission et a renforcer ses partenariats internes et externes en vue d’accomplir sa tâche. Un etablissement producteur et utilisateur de savoir ne peut faire l’economie du maillage et de la participation s’il veut etre efficace dans ses fonctions d’apprenant comme de participant. Toutefois, les contradictions et l’incertitude du contexte d’orientation, reflets d’ambiguites traversant toute la societe, rendent cette tâche plus difficile encore.

This article sketches distinctive and partly unique features of New Zealand society, its recent history, and its adult, community and tertiary education system, as a prelude to considering linkages. The absence of a distinct further education (FE) sector analogous to the British further education colleges (FECs) or Australian technical and further education (TAFE) institutes combined with a recent period of extreme economic rationalism to privilege competition over collaboration. A sharp change of direction in 1999 is leading into a new more planned tertiary system under a Tertiary Education Commission in 2002. This is likely to reward and drive up inter-institutional collaboration, probably also more sharply differentiating roles within the more planned tertiary sector. The article concludes by reflecting on distinctive strengths and shortcomings, and on lessons from New Zealand of possible interest elsewhere.

This article draws on experience working within the higher education systems of three countries in particular and on recent OECD work on e-learning and postsecondary education. It refers to the four forms of trade in services identified by GATS and explores different meanings and forms of internationalisation, especially from that perspective. The “cyperbole” of the virtual university and the global e-learning market is examined, leading to a consideration of which uses of new ICT may assist deeper forms of internationalisation and which are more superficial and essentially commercial. The article concludes with some discussion of future types of universities in a more global and virtual environment and their relationship to the four profiles proposed in the editorial of this special issue.

Lifelong learning remains a powerful and valid concept important for the evolution of higher education and the university in the changing context of globalization, 30 years after its first popularization around 1970. Like the related concept of the learning society, it suffers trivializing fashion and reductionism. As we move into a phase of universal tertiary education, it is all the more necessary to understand how to enable universities to become learning organizations playing a distinct role in a fast-changing world. Enterprise is an essential associated characteristic, rather than a betrayal of the essentially academic. Universities need to function as open systems, building partnerships and sharing networks in and beyond their localities, and playing leading roles in the creation of learning regions and in new modes of knowledge protection. A grasp of these issues points the way for universities to survive as valued and unique social institutions adapted to and playing an active part in the making o...

Transcatheter atrial septal defect device implantation in elderly patients may cause acute pulmonary oedema when impaired left ventricular diastolic function causes an abrupt increase in left atrial pressure. Though left atrial pressure is often monitored during test occlusion of a defect, it is not clear at what cut-off value device implantation is contraindicated. We report successful closure of an atrial septal defect in a 73-year-old patient, even though the mean left atrial pressure increased from 18 to 25 mm Hg with device implantation. Although a fenestrated device was used, this did not prevent the rise in left atrial pressure. The patient was supported with mechanical ventilation, milrinone and intravenous diuretics following the procedure and did not develop pulmonary oedema. Her dyspnoea improved and her functional status increased from New York Heart Association (NYHA) III to NYHA II. In conclusion, successful device closure can be accomplished even with high left atrial pressure.

Australian universities under stress are pulled between competing paradigms of managerialism and networking. External pressures towards homogenisation contradict the national requirement for higher education system diversity. Managing complexity requires a degree of self-confidence which reinstates collegiality and administration above managerialism and enables the institution effectively to engage with its local-global environment. This paper draws out the competing paradigms. It then sketches the purposes, processes and outcomes whereby UWS Nepean rejuvenated and energised itself to cope with the changes of the late 1990s and the demands of the new entrepreneurialism, without succumbing to economic rationalism. It suggests how changed culture may result in changed behaviour and greater productivity via networking. Structure is less important than shared purpose, culture and morale. Process matters, but can lead to displacement, so that means become ends and outcomes are lost to the procedural outputs of...

(Edward Elgar, Cheltenham, UK; Northampton, MA, USA), xviii +252 pp. £69.95, ISBN 978‐1‐84844‐216‐0 This is an interesting, challenging and thought‐provoking book, to be read with a mind both open ...

This paper examines aspects of the experience of a male University Pro-Vice-Chancellor with responsibilities for equal opportunity (EO). It reflects upon attitudes within the university and efforts at equalizing opportunity; on some practical obstacles; and on some devices used to promote EO. This responsibility is anchored and explained in the context of an interest in organization development, organization culture, and the management of innovation. The paper considers EO but also scans other attempts to achieve cultural change in support of other policy aspirations: strengthening a ‘research culture’, creating a ‘teaching culture’, fostering staff development, access and community service. It considers how far change has been internally or externally driven and has been intrinsic or extrinsic, rational, persuasive or coercive, principled or pragmatic, interested or disinterested, and with what success it has been promoted by formal and informal means. The university’s membership of Opportunity 2000 is located within this analysis. An attempt is made to illuminate what has worked and why, taking account of the resilience with which change can be subverted; informal as well as formal modes of working; and the extent to which working with the grain may be effective. The paper combines practical experience of promoting EO with reflection upon the experience.

At the time of writing, the UK-based International Journal of Lifelong Education (IJLE) was in its 30th year. Its title reflects a philosophical problem at the heart of the concept of lifelong learning, one revisited in its editorials from time to time. It also points up the difficulty of finding an effective language for discourse in this arena. A few years before the IJLE was founded, the OECD’s Centre for Education Research and Innovation (CERI) published a report called Recurrent Education; A Strategy for Lifelong Learning (OECD 1973). This proposed an approach to reforming the education system that would induce learning throughout life. The idea and term learning society was gaining ground; more recently, knowledge society and knowledge economy have found favour. The French term education permanente was used by the Council of Europe before that. It has been too literally translated as permanent education. For a while it was pilloried as a form of educational imperialism in which people were to be prisoners of school all their lives. This was at a time when the individualistic spirit of liberation of the 1960s was translated into hostility towards institutions that were seen as disempowering and ­self-serving, including schools and hospitals (Illich and Verne 1976).

RESUMELa demonstration faite recemment quant a l'incidence des activites anthropogeniques sur les changements climatiques a mis en relief l'importance de la mise au point de nouvelles methodes de cartographie des ecosystemes dans les zones littorales de facon que les changements dont ils sont l'objet soient rapidement detectes et mesures de facon precise. Cette etude cherche a determiner quelles sont les echelles appropriees pour la surveillance, a partir d'images de teledetection, des changements d'ordre ecologique qui surviennent dans les zones humides. Des images MEIS-II acquises en juillet '90 dans huit bandes, a une resolution de 5 m, ont ete utilisees pour definir un transect au-dessus du littoral de la Baie James. Des images ont ete generees a des echelles simulees, soit a une resolution variant de 10 ma 1280 m. Une classification dirigee, effectuee a partir de pixels de 5 m, a permis de determiner 15 categories de couverture du sol. Dans les cas de pixels deplus de 40 m, le nombre de categories se...

Learning cities and regions explains the different ways these terms are used. It explains how they are related to issues of government rather than mainly or only to education. Various learning city initiatives are described and discussed. The article then considers research in the area of the learning city-region and explores issues related to its implementation. The potentially important link between the learning city-region and higher education is then considered, including the idea of the engaged university. The article concludes by assessing the utility and possible future of the concept.

In 1990 a research and development project set out to identify and promote good practice in continuing vocational education (CVE) in the British universities. This paper explains the origins and approach of this project. It explains the centrality of organisational arrangements to the health and prospects of continuing vocational education, and the different models and assumptions which are commonly encountered, to do with its ‘mainstreaming’ and its supposedly self‐financing nature. Some particular concerns are addressed: the role of specialised units; the evolution of the British extramural tradition into new forms; the relationship with industrial liaison officers; and the supervision of university CVE operations. Desirable elements in the organisation of university continuing education are presented.

Distinctive features of Australian society and its education system are considered, including the use and meanings of terms in common currency. Evolution of the system of post‐compulsory education, including ages 16‐19 education, continuing education and training within employment, is traced through the period from the 1950s to the 1980s, with particular attention to the series of governmental reports and reviews. Issues and options facing the system in the mid‐1980s are summarized. The article concludes with a comparison between the decisive centralist changes at the end of the 1980s and the less dramatic, though hotly contested, changes to higher education in Britain.

The higher education system of the United Kingdom, of which the universities are only part, is changing rapidly. Although broad social conditions explain why universities should be centres of lifelong learning and specific institutional needs are in fact pushing them in this direction, changing demography is only one explanation among many. The kinds of programmes and related policies concerning students, teaching and curricula which are seen as relevant to continuing or lifelong education are widening and diversifying as the political and funding environment of higher education also changes. Research on continuing education and that generated by it are also being perceived differently. The new decade of the 1990's seems likely to witness significant changes in what is identified as continuing education as present trends in favour of integration or mainstreaming accelerate and new arrangements are made for more accessible and flexible forms of study both for degrees and for short courses. This process wil...

Cet article revele que, du fait de sa condition meme, l’universite doit, pour l’heure, s’accommoder d’une incompatibilite profonde entre son identite et sa vocation, et s’acquitter tant bien que mal d’une mission dont la portee est pourtant colossale. Cette tension est souvent masquee, fort heureusement peut-etre, par la confusion des termes employes pour analyser le role de l’universite, et par les incertitudes concernant la meilleure facon de presenter ce role. Nous ne tarderons pas a nous apercevoir que cette problematique est essentielle tant pour la gouvernance et la gestion de chaque etablissement que pour les politiques publiques menees dans le domaine de l’enseignement superieur de masse, envisage alors comme un systeme, notamment du point de vue de sa diversite.

Background— The use of permanent synthetic implants to close atrial septal defects (ASD) and patent foramen ovale (PFO) has a number of limitations, including late complications and the limiting of transeptal access to the left heart should it be required for the later treatment of acquired heart disease. BioSTAR is a novel, bioabsorbable, atrial septal repair implant. This phase I pilot study evaluates the feasibility, safety, and effectiveness of BioSTAR for the first time in humans. Methods and Results— We conducted a prospective, open-label, multicenter clinical study in 58 patients aged 28 to 68 years who had a clinically significant ASD or PFO. Percutaneous shunt closure was undertaken with the BioSTAR septal repair implant. Successful device implantation was achieved in 57 (98%) of 58 patients. Closure at 30 days and 6 months, assessed by contrast transthoracic echocardiography, was 48 (92%) of 52 and 54 (96%) of 56, respectively. There was no evidence of a clinically significant response to the device. Transient atrial arrhythmia occurred in 5 patients after implantation. No major safety issues were observed. Conclusions— This study demonstrates the feasibility, safety, and effectiveness of BioSTAR for the closure of ASD and PFO in humans with a high rate of early and complete shunt closure. BioSTAR is a novel septal repair implant designed to provide biological closure of atrial-level defects using the patient’s natural healing response. Because 90% to 95% of the implant is absorbed and replaced with healthy native tissue, future access to the left atrium may be achieved.

The idea of lifelong learning is not new. Initially it entered the international literature from more esoteric origins some thirty years before the end of the twentieth century, mainly via the Council of Europe, the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) and Unesco (Faure 1972, OECD 1973, Lengrand 1975). It enjoyed a brief period of sustained attention in these circles. A modest volume of secondary and national-level policy studies and other analyses followed during the seventies, mainly around the concept of recurrent education.