France shows ambition for life-long learning

Ian Mundell looks at French government plans to encourage the EU to pay more attention to continuing education.

Life-long learning is going to be a high priority for France’s presidency of the EU in the second half of 2008. Prime Minister François Fillon has already set the ball rolling by asking the European University Association to prepare a charter for life-long learning in higher education, which is to be presented to an informal meeting of education ministers in November.

The EUA has been given a free hand in developing the charter, and is currently thinking about how that might be done. A fundamental question is which audience the charter should address. It might be for governments to sign, and so concern national higher education systems, or it might be a charter to be adopted by universities themselves.

EUA sees the project as a chance to open up debate on life-long learning. "This could be an opportunity to explore some life-long learning concepts and give a more holistic framework to thinking about life-long learning," says David Crosier, EUA’s programme development director. In particular he thinks it would be useful to escape the narrow view that sees life-long learning as an economic fix in the context of the EU’s Lisbon Agenda for growth and jobs.

"Maybe we can use the opportunity of a charter to develop a conceptual framework for life-long learning which is a bit broader, that looks at a range of different needs and the way in which the parts of different education systems articulate with each another," he says.

This work on the charter also has the potential to connect with discussions about the future of the Bologna process of higher education reforms. The initial phase of the reforms, which included changes to degree structures, was intended to create a common European higher education area, by 2010, and discussions about what happens next begin in earnest this year.

Life-long learning was on the EUA’s agenda for 2008 before Fillon asked it to work on the charter. Its most recent Trends survey of European higher education found that universities are not giving as much attention to life-long learning as might be hoped, given its high political priority and the demographic changes in Europe.

"What we saw in Trends was quite a lot of marginal activity on life-long learning but no real feed into thinking about institutional development from a life-long learning perspective," says Crosier. Paradoxically, universities tend to have a short-term attitude to the issue. "A lot of institutions essentially react to the stimuli that [national higher education] systems give, and at the moment the systems don’t really think about incentives for broadening the role of institutions."

The EUA is keen to consult widely on the charter, both within the higher education sector and with other interested parties. Employers’ organisation BusinessEurope has already expressed an interest in getting involved. "We are pleased to see that this is in the pipeline," a spokesperson said, adding that the organisation was interested in seeing a more integrated approach to life-long learning relative to the labour market.

EURASHE, the European association of higher education institutions devoted to professional education, is also keen to contribute. "We see the life-long learning concept as an opportunity for higher education institutions to broaden access for groups which so far have not participated in higher education, so it has a social dimension," says Stefan Delplace, EURASHE’s secretary-general. The charter is on the agenda of the organisation’s annual conference in Malta this May.

An even broader approach is favoured by the European Universities Continuing Education Network, an association of around 200 universities active in life-long learning. "In most cases life-long learning is considered with a labour market approach or a social inclusion approach, but not really an holistic approach," says Michel Feutrie, president of EUCEN and vice-president of the Université des Sciences et Technologies in Lille. The aim should be to include more aspects of university teaching, he says, offering adults different learning pathways.

After consultations during the spring and summer, the EUA hopes to present a draft of the charter at a conference on life-long learning in Rotterdam in October.

• Ian Mundell is a freelance journalist based in Brussels.

Ian Mundell looks at French government plans to encourage the EU to pay more attention to continuing education.