Lifelong Learning and the University: A Post-Dearing Agenda »

The Report of the National Committee of Inquiry into Higher Education chaired by Sir Ron Dearing was published in July 1997. It represents the first officially sponsored systematic examination of higher education since the Robbins report over 25 years ago. The book is an authoritative evaluation of the cogency, relevance and prospects for success of the Dearing vision and recommendations. Like the members of the Committee, the authors have sought to take a holistic view; to consider the underlying implications of genuine lifelong learning for the university system, and how institutions and the system as a whole will need to adjust to realize its full potential. The outcomes are threefold: a description of what a UK higher education system that is genuinely part of a national learning society might look like, as well as the impetus this provides for radical reform: identification of features of its historical (especially recent) development, as well as wider social forces, which might inhibit or encourage its performance in this way; and assessment of the coherence, desirability and practicality of the Dearing proposals in bringing about this end.

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Evaluates the cogency, relevance, and prospects for the success of The Report of the National Committee in Inquiry into Higher Education, which was published in July 1997 and represents the first major examination of the British system of higher education in over 25 years. Describes what a higher education system that was a genuine part of a national learning society would look like, and the impetus that vision provides for radical reforms; identifies features of its historical development and wider social forces that might inhibit or encourage its performance in such a manner; and assesses the coherence, desirability, and practicality of the Committee's proposals in bringing about this end. Distributed in the US by Taylor & Francis. Annotation c. by Book News, Inc., Portland, Or.