Making the Rhetoric of Lifelong Learning a Reality?

SUMMARY

Continuing Education Departments in the UK have recently been faced with the challenge of responding to a shift in the basis of the funding of their provision towards the mainstream method. This case study focuses on how one such Department, within the University of Glasgow, has utilized special funding initiatives to develop a flexible programme of part‐time credit‐bearing courses and awards that are designed to widen access to higher education for adults wishing to study in the evening. The response from the target group to these developments suggests that there is significant demand for such opportunities, within a framework of lifelong learning, though considerable difficulties remain to be overcome before their full potential is likely to be achieved.