There is a crisis in the participation of part-time and mature students in the UK’s universities. Though England has experienced by far the steepest decline, universities in Scotland and Wales have also seen a sharp fall in the proportion of part-time and mature students on their courses. Moreover, with their increasingly exclusive focus on young full-time students, many institutions have closed their extra mural departments that had provided courses for the community beyond their campus. The reason for this rapid decline may be attributed to changes in funding associated with policy reforms but the universities’ retreat from lifelong learning also raises fundamental questions about their current social and economic purpose. Within that context the contributors to this seminar analyse the rise and fall of adult and community education in connection to the academy in Scotland and England. Each contributor has a long-standing commitment to adult and community education and in this seminar they each examine how the future of lifelong learning might be shaped and ensured.

Whatever happened to university adult education? Miriam Zukas, University of London, Birkbeck 

Adult education as a professional practice and as a resource for social movements: reflections on the Scottish context

Jim Crowther, Moray House School of Education, University of Edinburgh