The workshop series International Dialogue on Education Berlin is a joint initiative of the British Council Germany, the German Academic Exchange Service, the German-American Fulbright Commission, the Australian Group of Eight and the Canadian Bureau for International Education in Berlin.
Through the contributions of international participants the series aims to enrich the debate on science, research and higher education policy in Germany, to place German perspectives in a global context and to learn from positive examples from other countries.
Workshop 3 - UK
Higher education and lifelong learning in the UK
Professor Tom Schuller, Director, Inquiry into the Future for Lifelong Learning
Higher education has expanded considerably in the UK*, as in other OECD countries, over the past decade. In part this has been driven by the need to compete in the global economy with greater numbers of high-skilled people. In part too it has been driven by the wish to increase participation by social groups which have been hitherto underrepresented.
I shall give a brief account of these developments, but locate them in the wider context of lifelong learning. This has been the subject of a major national inquiry, and I shall report briefly on the findings of the inquiry that are relevant to higher education (published as Learning Through Life, NIACE 2009). How far has the expansion of higher education promoted a policy of learning throughout life? In my view it is not at all clear that expanding higher education in the way that has happened to date actually promotes lifelong learning; I shall argue that we need a radically different approach, which reflects major changes in the demographic profile of the population, and in the shape of the labour market.
*NB Education policies differ within the UK: the devolved administrations of Scotland and Wales operate HE policies which are different from that of England.
