Reshaping Colleges for the Community in Canada and Britain

ABSTRACT

The changing status and role of the Further Education College in Britain has brought it closer to the North American Community College in many respects. This article, based on an extended study visit sponsored under the Faculty Award Scheme of the Canadian Government, discusses ways in which the missions of these institutions are evolving, with reference to social and cultural trends in the two countries. Lessons are drawn: first from Canada's longer experience of providing flexible post‐secondary education for large populations of young people and adults, and secondly from Britain's responses to the opportunities created by the organisational changes of incorporation.