Education, continued

Lifelong learning is a priority for the EU and universities, but it is proving a difficult concept to implement.

Lifelong learning has become an important theme in European education policy, featuring among the priorities of successive presidencies of the EU’s Council of Ministers and in European Commission work programmes. It has also risen up the agenda for universities as they seek to diversify sources of income and address demographic changes that could cut the flow of students. 

Yet it remains a challenging concept to implement. Many universities carry out lifelong-learning activities, but few have integrated the subject into their institutional strategies. This is clear from an EU-funded project, the results of which were presented on 31 August in Southampton in the UK.

Sirus project

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Led by the European University Association (EUA), the Sirus (Shaping Inclusive and Responsive University Strategies) project examined the processes being used to design, adopt and implement new strategies for lifelong learning among 29 universities from 18 European countries.

These institutions were of varying sizes, some in the process of embarking on lifelong learning activities, others fine-tuning established strategies. The most advanced were in countries such as Finland, where lifelong learning has been a legal requirement for universities for some time. Twelve of the countries involved had legislation in place for lifelong learning, but only four backed this up with funding. This gap is an important brake on developing institutional strategies, the project report noted.

The project found universities passing through three stages as they developed a lifelong learning strategy. It calls the first the adaptation stage, in which an institution adopts a strategy without necessarily defining lifelong learning; or it leaves this task to a dedicated office, most commonly dealing with continuing education. The university’s traditional activities are not significantly affected by this kind of strategy.

Second is the organisational stage, in which a university builds on continuing education activities and puts in place a well-defined strategy. There will be some integration of initial and continuing education, with study programmes adapted to attract adult learners and open participation to a broader population of students. There will also be some administrative support, services to aid access and recognition of prior learning.

Third is the cultural stage, in which all the university’s education activities are seen as contributing to lifelong learning. All academic and administrative staff are engaged and learners of all types placed at the centre of teaching activities.

Moving from one stage to the next is not straightforward. “In most of the cases the progression looks like a spiral, based on the successive decisions of the top management, which make progress possible or lead to regression,” the report said.

The importance of leadership was one of the findings that stood out for Hanne Smidt, a senior adviser to EUA and co-author of the report. “You need to take students and staff with you to do this,” she said. “There is an inherent thinking among some academics that lifelong learning is not high-quality.” For example, there is a perception that older students or students from unconventional backgrounds will be difficult to teach and somehow reduce the quality of the student body.

Connection failure

Smidt was also struck by the failure of some universities to make the connection between lifelong learning and widening participation, another policy imperative. “Maybe half of the universities were not aware of that because they came [to lifelong learning] from continuing education,” she said. Smidt expects the transition to take time. “We’re looking at probably between ten and 20 years before it becomes common practice or a common cultural way of doing things.”

Ian Mundell is a freelance journalist based in Brussels.