International Research and Researchers Network SeminarThursday 19 June 2014

Higher Education and Lifelong Learners: the case of Ireland in international context

Maria SloweyDirector, HERC (Higher Education Research Centre)

Dublin City University

Preliminary comments: socio-economic factors shaping higher education globally1. Lifelong learning and higher education across 14 countries- core mission or ‘someone else’s business’? 2. Higher education in Ireland- challenges of access and admission for adults as lifelong learners3. Culture change in higher education-what might an ‘Age Friendly University’ look like?

For SRHE interest… • First- drawing on two different bodies of literature

(HE and AdEd) to develop conceptualisations

• Second- adopting a quasi-longitudinal approach, examining the same country cases over 3 different time periods (1987,2000,2012)

• Third- developing typologies from these country cases

• Fourth- potential ‘translational’ implications for practice in HEIs

1. Lifelong learning and higher education across 14 countries- core mission or ‘someone else’s business’? 2. Higher education in Ireland- challenges of access and admission for adults as lifelong learners3. Culture change in higher education-what might an ‘Age Friendly University’ look like?

Lifelong learning- (recent) evolution of a concept

• Role of international agencies- UNESCO, OECD, World Bank…European Union

• Narrowing to skills agenda• ‘Policy borrowing’ at national levels• UNESCO (Faure report)Learning to doLearning to knowLearning to be

European Universities Charter on Lifelong Learning(2008)

• Universities have a particular role in providing ‘research-based higher education for lifelong learners’

• The impetus to develop more inclusive and responsive universities is not a call for revolution, but rather for evolution…In reality the key challenge is to find ways that open up a wider range of educational services to new learners and to returning learners, and to ensuring continuing opportunities for learners throughout their lives.

But…international comparative data on participation in higher education: missing the lifelong learners?

• Focus on Age Participation Rate (APR)• Focus on full-time undergraduate entrants-

excluding much part-time, distance, post-experience and non-credit programmes

• Greatest HE expansion in non-university institutions- polytechnics, community colleges, further education colleges etc…

Higher education in the broader landscape of lifelong learning (Slowey and Schuetze2012)

Conceptualising adult learners in higher education

Life stage of student

Mode of study

Types of programmes Organisation of provision

(1) Countries with relatively high levels of participation by adult learners and demonstrating a relatively high degree of flexibility in relation to entry criteria and study patterns: eg Sweden and the United States. (2) Countries where there were significant, but lower, proportions of adult learners across the system as a whole, and where adult students were frequently located in open universities or dedicated centres of adult or continuing education within ‘mainstream’ institutions: this category included Australia, Canada, New Zealand and the UK. (3) Countries with low levels of adult participation in higher education: this category included Austria, Germany, Ireland and Japan.

Typology of lifelong learners in higher education

• Second chance learners• Equity groups• Deferrers• Recurrent learners • Returners• Refreshers• Learners in later life

(Slowey and Schuetze 2012)

1. Lifelong learning and higher education across 14 countries- core mission or ‘someone else’s business’? 2. Higher education in Ireland- challenges of access and admission for adults as lifelong learners3. Culture change in higher education-what might an ‘Age Friendly University’ look like?

Phase 1: Historical foundations

• 1592 Trinity College established by charter from Queen Elizabeth•1821 Royal Commission on primary education in Ireland•1831 National school system established under British rule•1845 Initiative to establish three secular Queen’s Colleges•1852 Papal Bull to establish a Catholic University in Dublin- J.H.Newman appointed Rector•Reforms in 1880s• 1908: Establishment of National University of Ireland (subsequently 4 constituent colleges)

Phase 2: (Late) moderanisation •1960s: OECD Review of secondary education•Introduction of free secondary education•Establishment of 2 National Institutes of Higher Education- subsequently DCU and UL•Establishment of national system of Regional Technical Colleges- subsequently Institutes of Technology

Phase 3: Expansion and policy focus on university research (‘knowledge economy’)

Universities on the island of Ireland

Institutes of Technology in Ireland

Despite reservations about the crudeness of internationalrankings, by 2011

* eight Irish institutions featured in the top 500 in global rankings out of more than 15,000 universities worldwide.

*per capita, Ireland had the 8th highest number of high-ranking institutions

“…and we are ahead of the UK and the US (on a per capita basis) on this metric”

Minister of Education, DES, 2011

This- despite the fact that investment per student was below international comparator averages.

In the case of TCD for example,

it was estimated that investment per student enrolment was “…less than a sixth that of universities in the USwith comparable outputs (Hazelkorn 2011)

While there has been considerable expansion of higher education opportunities in recent years, this expansion has mainly been in the provision of full-time opportunities focused primarily on entrants from upper second-level education. Irish higher education students have the narrowest age-range across all OECD countries reflecting the current unresponsiveness of Irish higher education to the skills needs of adults in the population.

OECD (2004) Review of HE in Ireland

… the period of this strategy demands that Ireland’s higher education system become much more flexible in provision in both time and place, and that it facilitates transfer and progression through all levels of the system. There remain significant challenges in this area: successive reports have recognized the relatively poor performance of our system in the area of lifelong learning, while the requirement for upgrading and changing of employee skills and competencies is becoming ever greater.

National Strategy for Higher Education in Ireland(2011)

Dublin Region Higher Education Alliance(supported by the Strategic Innovation Fund of the Higher Education Authority)

Views on the changing nature of the student body

Disagree Neutral Agree

Level of classroom engagement by students has increased

37.2 25.6 37.1

Student attendance levels are declining

28.8 22.0 50.2

Increased diversity has had a positive impact on the classroom learning environment

10.4 36.8 57.7

Students are increasingly well prepared for third level learning

71.4 16.9 11.7

1. Lifelong learning and higher education across 14 countries- core mission or ‘someone else’s business’? 2. Higher education in Ireland- challenges of access and admission for adults as lifelong learners3. Culture change in higher education-what might an ‘Age Friendly University’ look like?

David E.Bloom (2012)

10 Principles for an AFU-adopted by partner HEIs 1. To encourage the participation of older adults in all the core activities of the university,

including educational and research programmes.

2. To promote personal and career development in the second half of life and to support those who wish to pursue “second careers”.

3. To recognise the range of educational needs of older adults (from those who were early school-leavers through to those who wish to pursue Master’s or PhD qualifications).

4. To promote intergenerational learning to facilitate the reciprocal sharing of expertise between learners of all ages.

5. To widen access to online educational opportunities for older adults to ensure a diversity of routes to participation.

6. To ensure that the university’s research agenda is informed by the needs of an ageing society and to promote public discourse on how higher education can better respond to the varied interests and needs of older adults.

7. To increase the understanding of students of the longevity dividend and the increasing complexity and richness that ageing brings to our society.

8. To enhance access for older adults to the university’s range of health and wellness programmes and its arts and cultural activities.

9. To engage actively with the university’s own retired community.

10. To ensure regular dialogue with organisations representing the interests of the ageing population.

Student on Intergenerational Learning Programme (ILP) meets with Enda Kenny Taoiseach (Irish Prime Minister) at launch of DCU Age

Friendly University

Two concluding troublesome questions…

First, re conclusion from a north-south study of Ireland over a decade ago

There is no obvious reason why the education and young and full-time people should be guaranteed whereas the education of disadvantaged adults should be discretionary and subject to the prevailing economic circumstances, except perhaps that it has always been so. If the new creed is lifelong learning, the entire rational for funding post-school education needs to be re-examined

P. McGill and M. Morgan (2001) Ireland’s Learning Poor: Adult Educational Disadvantage and Cross-Border Co-operation, Armagh: The Centre for Cross Border Studies, pp.47-49

Second troublesome question- from a compartive European study 15 years ago

It may seem fanciful to conceive of adult students as agents of subversion, especially so when so often they are the most rewarding of students to teach. Yet the complexity of their social and economic character and of their life-roles…helps to dissolve what is distinct and, to so many, all precious about traditional university or college life into a wider stream of activity much closer to the rest of social and cultural life. E. Bourgeois, C. Duke, J.L. Guyot and B. Merril (1999) The Adult University

European HEA (2012) Existence of student status other than full-time