The Role of Higher Education in Promoting Lifelong Learning

UNESCO’s vision of lifelong learning encompasses all contexts (formal, non-formal and informal) and ages (‘from cradle to grave’) of learning. The UNESCO Institute for Lifelong Learning and its predecessor, the UNESCO Institute for Education, have promoted policy and practice in this field for more than four decades. The decision to produce this volume was prompted by an observation that lifelong learning – both as a concept and in its many practical manifestations – is becoming a staple of education policy discourse around the globe. At the same time, we noted that understandings of lifelong learning differ widely, not only between countries, but also across the sub-sectors of education systems.

This book, which emerged from a seminar held in 2012 to mark the 60th anniversary of the UNESCO Institute for Lifelong Learning, addresses various ways that higher education can promote lifelong learning, paying due consideration to regional disparities and specificities. These include responses to the learning needs of senior citizens in China, the challenge of implementing recurrent education in Japan, European efforts to develop a common approach to life-
long learning at university, and how a lifelong learning approach is put into practice in higher education in Australia. It is hoped that this book will help the reader gain a better understanding of the theoretical frameworks and practical implementation of lifelong learning in higher education, both within their own region and globally.