Access or exclusion? Some comments on the history and future prospects of continuing education in England

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Abstract
This paper contends that English higher education has, for long, possessed a number of persistent structural features, that have resulted from the particular character of English social development, and have tended to isolate is from other aspects of society, and to predispose it to identify exclusion with the achievement of high standards. It is argued that these characteristics have survived through both the creation of civic universities in the last century and the expansion of higher education in the last 25 years. Indeed, it is suggested that they have been a persistent source of ‘academic drift˚s, tending to hinder or re-channel efforts aimed at establishing continuing education. The paper suggests, however, that the social basis for the exclusionism of English higher education is now being eroded and that circumstances are propitious for a fundamental shift in emphasis that could bring into existence a system of higher education that was far more accessible and that aimed to serve the educational needs of individuals throughout their life-span. For this to be achieved, it is argued that higher educationalists must, whatever their reservations, make use of the pressure towards vocationalism as an important lever for opening higher education to a far wider audience.

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