A University for the People

Over the past year lifelong learning in universities has come under the spotlight of politicians, educationalists, journalists and adult learners. For some, the concern has been about countering the fall-out from changes in public funding and challenging the reduction in provision--and even closure--of university departments. A number of departments of continuing education or lifelong learning can trace their origins to the inception of their universities. Their closure shrinks opportunities for part-time university study for adults. At the same time, politicians and policymakers, concerned to increase the proportion of the UK workforce with the higher-level skills regarded as essential for economic renewal and growth, have identified a large pool of adults, just under six million, in employment and with the qualification-readiness for entry to higher education, but who have no experience of it. This policy turn proposes to target adults in the next phase of higher education expansion and to encourage a diversity of models of learning. Ironically, these models--such as part-time attendance, work-based or day-release models, and blended e-learning--are already prevalent in many university lifelong learning departments. Does this mean that there is a space for lifelong learning in universities or will lifelong learning disappear from universities, as many fear? This article reviews the state of lifelong learning from the perspective of one university, the University of Sheffield. At Sheffield, even though some change is taking place in response to the funding cuts to the sector, these are not on the scale of the significant changes elsewhere in the country. Indeed, a recent report on continuing education by the Council for British Archaeology identified Sheffield as one of the few universities in the country that is displaying a degree of stability in the face of these threats to the field.