Learning Through Life Revisited: The Role of Policy in Enhancing Social Mobility Through Access to Part-Time Study

This chapter focusses on the situation of part-time learners and explores the extent to which policy in England has confounded, rather than facilitated, lifelong learning opportunities. A brief overview of Lifelong Learning policy at Pan-European level is presented with the findings of a specific project which sought to establish what the barriers were to access for diverse student bodies in England, Denmark, Finland and Germany. Then, the authors focus on the ‘perfect storm’ in Higher Education where a catastrophic decline in the numbers of part-time student, generated due to the clash of several policy ‘clouds’, raises questions about the government’s commitment to lifelong learning