Did you know that older people outnumber children under 16 in the UK ? [Office
of National Statistics, 21 August 2008
http://www.statistics.gov.uk/cci/nugget.asp?ID=949 ]. Yet, the government
has recently cut funding in adult and community learning for that it is
estimated at least 1 million places have been lost.
Nevertheless, there are still quite high numbers of older learners [i.e. 50+]
across the education sector. In fact, the UK Universities figure is 15% of
undergraduates, and at my largely post-graduate institution it is about 10%.
These older students can be a very successful learning group.
For these reasons, many of us believe this is a growing new sector that the
traditional structures do not yet encompass and the EO movement has not
quite caught up with. We need to widen our perception.
To encourage that process, we have started a new master's level module** at
the Institute of Education in which we investigate the diverse contexts of
older learning. It is delivered by blended learning with the emphasis on peer
collaboration.
As the first programmeof its kind, we see it as an acknowledgement that the
older population deserves better treatment in education.
If you are interested, please contact me.
Anita Pincas, [log in to unmask]
Senior Lecturer, Institute of Education, University of London
** Issues in Educating and Training Mature Adults (50+)
www.ioe.ac.uk/courses/ietma
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