Public higher education has a long history, with its growth associated with mass higher education and the extension of a social right to education from secondary schooling to university education. Following the rise in student numbers since the 1970s, the aspiration to higher education has been universalized, although opportunities remain…

Rural colleges and universities in the USA struggle to recruit new students, as their geographic region is depopulating and costs to attend classes on campus are increasing. Online education using the Internet is rapidly expanding as an effective growth strategy to reach new groups of students. In this paper, we take the position that online…

This article describes and discusses the development of lifelong learning policy in two EU member states, Denmark and Portugal. The purpose is to show how different societal and historical contexts shape the development and implementation of lifelong learning policies, even though these policies have significant common elements. As a basis for the…

This essay examines one of the most intractable pedagogical problems of the Marxian revolutionary tradition: who will educate the educator and how ought the learning process to proceed. The solutions of Marx, Lenin and Habermas are critically examined towards the clarification of the emancipatory learning process. This learning process has three…

In times of global influence, compulsory education in the Nordic countries has promoted democracy as choice since the 1990s, as enhancing an individual good. Supporting education for democracy is a matter that concerns the world and society on the topic of "what shall he do? Shall he act for this or that end?". This indicates that…

A number of countries in Europe, including the UK, have adopted language and citizenship tests or courses as a requirement for granting citizenship to immigrants. To acquire citizenship, immigrants to the UK must pass a test on British society and culture, or demonstrate progress in the English language. For those with an insufficient command of…

This paper explores how the report "Learning through Life" exemplifies the dominant policy discourse on lifelong learning emphasizing strongly individual social mobility. The paper explores further how this functionalist and reductionist turn in (adult) education has come about and how concepts of democratic citizenship and education may create…

This article proposes lifelong learning as a socio-personal process and a personal fact. As such, it is conceptually distinct from an educational provision, which constitutes one kind of institutional fact. In making this distinction, this article seeks to elaborate a major flaw in the precepts for conceptualisation and enactment of the report…

This commentary article focuses on the theme of "migration and communities." It raises a number of important concerns inherent in the report. The report mistakenly adopts the "sameness" approach, thus negating Britain's unprecedented super-diversity that is the result of increasing migration. It wrongly assumes that all migrants are the same and…

This review analyses the report "Learning through Life" from the point of view of the sustainable development theme and from a "South" perspective. The review recognises that the report is written to influence UK policy-makers and practitioners; it has captured the results of a broad-based inquiry, and it therefore has had to proceed within that…

This paper reports on a five-year study which explored the engagement of a group of long-term mentally ill adults in community provision in which they learned basic, expressive literacy. The research mapped points in the learning, writing and auto/biographic engagement where set identities were being troubled, and frisson created in the challenge…

The recent restructuring of higher education in Japan has been carried out in the context of neo-liberalism with an emphasis on the unbridled workings of market forces. However, civic discourse on issues such as active citizenship and social inclusion/exclusion, which is significant to higher education as a democratic public sphere, has been left…

Recently, politics of education in Nigeria have shifted from urban to rural literacy, which led to the development of programmes such as the nomadic women's adult education programme. The primary objective of this study was to evaluate the efficacy of the programme's implementation strategies, and the extent to which the health educational…

In this paper, the author has attempted to analyze and assess the progress of education for all (EFA) in India from 1985/1986 to 2005/2006. A similar analysis by the same author on this subject, for the period 1950-1986, was published in this journal in 1990. During that period of 35 years the development of EFA was apparently impressive, but…

In the political discourse, the idea that organising continuing education according to the rules of the market would improve the quality, efficiency and effectiveness of continuing education programmes is gaining significance. In this article, we endeavour to subject some elements of this fundamental option in continuing education policy to an…