Premium
Adult Students — The New Mission for Higher Education?
Author(s) -
Slowey Maria
Publication year - 1988
Publication title -
higher education quarterly
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.976
H-Index - 42
eISSN - 1468-2273
pISSN - 0951-5224
DOI - 10.1111/j.1468-2273.1988.tb01826.x
Subject(s) - vocational education , higher education , context (archaeology) , work (physics) , adult education , economic growth , access to higher education , further education , political science , pedagogy , sociology , public relations , psychology , economics , engineering , geography , mechanical engineering , archaeology
This paper identifies the main factors underlying the increasing demand by adults for higher education within industrialized countries. The patents of adult participation in higher education in the UK are outlined in the context of a recent imitational project on Adult Participation in Higher Education, conducted by the Centre for Educational Research and Innovation of the Organization for Economic Co‐operation and Development (CERI/OECD). While the current levels of participation of adults in higher education vary considerably between countries, a number of common trends can be identified. Two trends in particular emerge as having significant policy implications in terms of the relationship between access issues for individuals 10 higher education, and the vocational updating activities which are frequently regarded as synoyomous with short‐course work. In the first place, as most adult students currently gaining entry to higher education have already achieved relatively high levels of educational qualifications, those who are often referred to as the ‘second chance’ students are in the minority. Secondly, career interests figure predominantly amongst the reasons given by adult students for choosing to return to study. The pattern of student involvement in an innovative programme in one English polytechnic is provided as an illustration of an attempt to provide for both the needs of individuals for access, and for those in employment for updating and post‐experience vocational education in an integrated way.