PUBLISHED SOURCES FOR THE STUDY OF CONTEMPORARY BRITISH FURTHER EDUCATION.

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.