Lifelong Education and the Universities : A Canadian Perspective

Publisher Website
Google Scholar
Abstract
English Throughout the history of mankind lifelong learning has been a crucial factor in the survival of societies and individuals. In the second half of the twentieth century we have come to realize that schooling of the children and youth no longer is sufficient and that learning is a lifelong process which needs to be supported by broadly conceived and based lifelong education provision. The universities have a significant role in this provision as, in addition to their unique role in generating new knowledge and in research, they also contribute increasingly to comprehensive lifelong education provision through undergraduate and graduate programs and general and professional continuing education. The newer role of contributing to society through continuing education will increasingly be demanded by society and the universities need to respond both for altruistic and for self‐interest reasons. Ongoing demographic and social changes will require the universities to adjust to the new constituencies and their needs. Among the new constituencies are the mature non‐employed who seek personal enrichment through study, the wage earners who seek to enhance their skills and competitive position, the professionals who seek to maintain and update their skills and knowledge, and the mobile who have to seek to complete their degrees through transfering from institution to institution. The general aging of the population and the rapidly increasing number of women entering credit and non‐credit university programs will have considerable impact on the universities, as will the tendency to interrupt studies and to return at a later age. The characteristics, both sociological and psychological, of these new constituencies will require of the universities changes and adjustments in organization, approaches, financing, delivery and services, both with respect to part‐time degree and non‐credit continuing education programs.

This publication has 0 references indexed in Scilit: