The fortunes of publicly funded adult learning have fluctuated widely over the years, and the current downturn in organised learning provision is well known to readers of "Adults Learning". Lifelong learning in higher education has borne its share of policy and funding crises, but from the beginning of the 1980s it has been subject to a continuing and damaging turbulence, ranging from the unintended consequences of changes in the policy and funding climate to direct interventions by Whitehall and by universities themselves. Over a quarter-century of turbulence and erosion, university lifelong learning has had no choice but to adapt to survive. While some departments have been forced to close, others have found ways to thrive, and the founding principles of the old extra-mural system remain as relevant as ever. Founded on the values of liberal education (in its broadest sense), of learner-centred curricula, of flexibility and accessibility, of social equity and public engagement, its values remain relevant to any humane concept of widened participation in a local and regional context, even if its original structure is now changed almost beyond recognition.