The Future of Education

Edition 14

Accepted Abstracts

Extramural Education for the Twenty First Century. Looking Back to Look Forward

Pushpa Kumbhat, Independent Researcher (United Kingdom)

Abstract

Historically, British universities served their local communities through extramural education. Yet, more recently, this tradition has radically declined, calling into question the purpose and relevance of universities as institutions with civic responsibilities towards their regional, local and, often diverse communities. The Universities Partnership Programmes (UPP)
Foundation Civic University Commission’s interim report (2018) notes that universities today favour global research interests over engaging with and serving their immediate communities. It strongly recommends that  universities re-establish adult education as a core activity to reconnect them to their communities and fulfil their civic responsibilities. Another report recently identified the need for a more imaginative approach to the
dissemination of higher education than the current system allows. The Augar Report or The Review of Post-18 Education and Funding (May 2019) emphasises the need to narrow the gap between the ‘...50 per cent of young people attending higher education and the other 50 per cent who do not.’ The reason to do so is ‘...is a matter of fairness and equity ...’. The findings of the Augar Report findings reflect John Bynner’s (2016) research that identifies the great gap between those who benefit from education and those who do not, across generations. Bynner notes that a ‘trajectory of disadvantage’ develops as a consequence of a lack of education which is difficult to reverse. Adult education in Bynner’s view has the potential to narrow the learning divide and promote social well-being. 2019 was the centenary of the 1919 Report. The final and interim reports of the Adult Education Committee of the Ministry of Reconstruction – a seminal yet overlooked work that explored ‘the provision for, and possibilities of, Adult Education (other than technical and vocational) in Great Britain....’. The reports outlined prove that the debate about adult education as an integral part of the work of universities is as much alive now as it was a century ago. They also identify that adult education has considerable potential to enhance and adapt higher education to the needs of people living in an era of automation and technological revolution. This paper will approach the future of higher education through history. It will give a general outline of the foundation, development and demise of extramural education in Britain. It will also outline current thinking on the value of extra-mural education as a future innovation in the world of higher education.

Keywords: Extramural, adult, higher, education, history, future, citizenship.

References:
[1] John Bynner, ‘Whatever Happened to Lifelong Education? And Does it Matter’, Journal of the British Academy, (March, 2017), 5, 61-89, DOI
https://doi.org/10.5871/jba/005.061
[2] The UPP Foundation Civic University Commission Progress Report (October 2018)
https://upp-foundation.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/UPP-Foundation-Civic-University-Commission-Progress-Report.pdf
[3] Independent Panel Report to the Review of Post-18 Education and Funding (May, 2019)
https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/
uploads/attachment_data/file/805127/Review_of_post_18_education
_and_funding.pdf
[4] The 1919 Report: the final and interim reports of the Adult Education Committee of the Ministry of Reconstruction, 1918-1919 reprinted with introductory essays by Harold Wiltshire, John Taylor, Bernard Jennings, (Nottingham: University of Nottingham, Department of Adult Education, 1980).

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