| An introduction to adult education - and the role of | | | | time or chooses from a limited range of options. |
| the private sector in it | | | | These programs are also the most readily |
| The concept of postsecondary education aimed | | | | commodified as a set "product". |
| specifically at adults has a long and at times | | | | One reason why private providers have met with |
| controversial history. | | | | such success in serving the adult market is precisely |
| In the nineteenth-century, institutions began to offer | | | | because they are free from the control of |
| programs that would form the foundations of | | | | government and quasi-government regulators, and |
| contemporary night school and distance education | | | | can therefore pursue program individualization. In |
| offerings. These programs led to the concept of the | | | | short, they are capable of evolving new program |
| "external degree", whereby a student could prepare | | | | methodologies that meet the needs of the market |
| at teaching colleges or privately for a degree which | | | | directly. This is controversial since it threatens the |
| was then earned by sitting formal examinations | | | | vested interests of public sector providers, who have |
| audited by the degree-awarding university. | | | | instead been determined to restrict the market only |
| The external degree concept offered opportunities | | | | to what they were prepared and able to supply. In |
| for the working adult, who had perhaps missed out | | | | the process, the public sector has sought to attack |
| on a chance to attend university after leaving school, | | | | the freedom of the self-regulating sector and to |
| to obtain a qualification that would otherwise have | | | | either restrain that freedom or destroy the |
| entailed an impossible compromise between campus | | | | competition altogether, often using arguments about |
| attendance, career and family responsibilities. This | | | | quality as a cover for its actions. Such arguments |
| was the beginning of a revolution that would go on | | | | have uniformly failed to make the distinction between |
| to embrace non-traditional education and much else | | | | diploma mills and legitimate self-regulating schools, |
| besides. | | | | instead acting anti-competitively to exclude both. |
| During the 1990s, the number of external degree | | | | The result of this policy has been that the |
| programs on offer from private providers increased | | | | self-regulating sector is now extremely small |
| sharply with the advent of the Internet, and those | | | | compared to its heyday ten and more years ago. |
| programs began to concentrate on distance learning | | | | Many private institutions have accepted public sector |
| and correspondence instruction as their modes of | | | | control or have been driven out of business as the |
| delivery. This has resulted in a wide choice for | | | | public sector has persuaded legislators to act to |
| consumers and a spectrum of offerings in terms of | | | | reinforce its commercial monopoly. However, |
| their program type, cost, delivery methods and | | | | legitimate individualized self-regulating sector options |
| quality. | | | | do remain for the discerning consumer so long as he |
| In this paper we will give an overview of some | | | | or she is prepared to work to seek them out, to |
| universal considerations of adult postsecondary | | | | assess them carefully to establish whether they |
| education, and then examine the role of the | | | | meet their needs, and to see behind the false |
| self-regulating private sector in fulfilling them. | | | | arguments provided by public sector opponents in |
| Adults seeking education | | | | order to discredit them. |
| Some of the many types of adults seeking | | | | Where can the self-regulating adult education sector |
| postsecondary education include the following: | | | | meet market need? |
| ? Working adults seeking an award to consolidate | | | | The justification for the self-regulating sector in |
| experience and education gained through informal | | | | postsecondary adult education is in its unique ability |
| sources, or through formal sources that has not led | | | | to meet market need. There are several key areas in |
| to an award; | | | | which it can do this, by offering: |
| ? Working adults seeking to update their skills and | | | | ? Programs at a more affordable cost than public |
| move up to the next educational level, often through | | | | sector controlled institutions; |
| a graduate level degree or diploma; | | | | ? Programs that are individualized and tailored to the |
| ? Working adults seeking to change career; | | | | student rather than being constructed according to |
| ? Adults who are taking a career break or who are | | | | the social engineering preferences of government, or |
| unemployed and seek to improve their prospects in | | | | the conservative outlooks of mainstream academia |
| the workplace; | | | | and its accreditation agencies; |
| ? Adults who do not work but want to study in | | | | ? Program methodologies that are flexible and |
| furtherance of their interests, hobbies and | | | | designed on nontraditional principles of empowering |
| enthusiasms; | | | | the student as the center of their own learning; |
| ? The retired and those who want to "finish what | | | | ? Greater flexibility in admissions, including open |
| they started"; | | | | enrolment policies, based on what the applicant can |
| ? Those who seek a title that has personal and | | | | prove they can do rather than the possession of a |
| professional significance to them and offers a | | | | specific credential; |
| competitive advantage in the marketplace, such as a | | | | ? A smaller, less bureaucratic approach that imposes |
| professional doctorate. | | | | fewer costs on the student and embraces |
| Adults seeking educational opportunity do not fit into | | | | technology fully rather than being tied to outdated |
| as easy categorization as do school-leavers. The main | | | | campus-based models, thus actively promoting the |
| reason for this is that, except for those who are | | | | evolution of the university concept into the |
| seeking to change careers, many will be already | | | | Information Age; |
| experienced in their fields and seeking to study either | | | | ? Progressive and experimental programs in specific |
| to consolidate this experience ("to validate what I | | | | program areas and in interdisciplinary modes that are |
| know") or to move ahead to the next level, often | | | | not offered within the public sector; |
| via a graduate-level program. This means that | | | | ? Openness to the transfer of credits at the |
| although adults will often have very clear aims as to | | | | graduate level, in contrast to almost all public sector |
| what they want to achieve and how to achieve it, | | | | institutions; |
| those aims will be precisely focussed and will differ a | | | | ? Programs at the doctoral level by totally |
| good deal from one person to the next. | | | | non-residential study; |
| Offering educational programs to this constituency is | | | | ? An openness to ideologies that are no longer |
| therefore not a simple matter. Motivated adults show | | | | welcome in much of academia, which has become |
| a wish to customize their program to include exactly | | | | dominated by authoritarian and politically correct |
| what they want and need and no more, and an | | | | ideas; |
| understandable wish to reach their goal through the | | | | ? Transnational and cross-cultural philosophies of |
| most economical and efficient route. Although a | | | | education rather than being restricted by the |
| school-leaver is often happy to see their college | | | | educational norms of a single nation or system; |
| experience in terms of four years of varied and | | | | ? Education that resists restrictions that are the |
| sometimes digressive academic life, the adult learner | | | | outcome of vested commercial interests, that work |
| rarely has the patience or willingness to sit through | | | | against the interests of students and that serve as a |
| classes repeating what they already know. They | | | | block on progress within the postsecondary sector; |
| demand an individualized educational experience that | | | | ? Direct accountability to the market (without |
| is tailored to them and them alone. | | | | intermediaries) and facilitating consumer choice within |
| The challenge of educating adults | | | | diverse options. |
| Many institutions seeking to serve adults are faced | | | | This is a long list, and it could be a lot longer still. |
| with difficulties in meeting these needs. Where an | | | | Where there is a need, or a gap in the market, the |
| institution is large and has a substantial bureaucracy, it | | | | self-regulating sector exists to fill it. If there were no |
| cannot easily individualize the educational experience, | | | | need - if the public sector were perfectly responsive |
| and instead must serve the needs of the majority | | | | and performed to a level where it met demand - |
| over those of the individual. Furthermore, | | | | there would be nothing more for the self-regulating |
| accreditation agencies and government overseers of | | | | sector to do other than compete on price and quality |
| education do not generally take kindly to program | | | | (which in themselves would, of course, be valid |
| individualization, regarding it as impossible to assess | | | | criteria). As the situation stands, the self-regulating |
| and therefore as inherently difficult to subject to | | | | sector is excellently positioned, not only to highlight |
| consistency measures and standardization - the core | | | | the multiple areas that have gone wrong within our |
| aims of such bodies. Perfect programs for such | | | | current system, but also to offer real solutions to |
| institutions are those that follow a set pattern and | | | | that crisis. |
| where everyone does the same thing at the same | | | | |