LLinE Lifelong Learning in Europe

Editorial - Unequal Europe

Unequal Europe

Professional adult education is officially very highly appreciated in most European countries. Because the competence and education reserve is renewed slowly through the input of the young, resources must be channelled into maintaining and developing the qualification level of the adult population. All countries agree that possibilities for adult education and lifelong learning should be increased to support the development of a competence-intensive nation. There is not only need for short professional courses but in many organizations there is also a high demand for the personnel, especially at the age group 45 – 64, to acquire additional education, leading to a degree.

But what is happening in practice? The brand new report Education at a Glance 2003 gives a good picture e.g. about how much money is used to adult education, or how many of us participate in it in different OECD countries. It also tells what kind of basic training the population in European countries has.

The differences between countries in participation in adult education are surprisingly high. It is also evident at university level education. According to the OECD report, in the OECD countries on average, 30 per cent of the people in the typical graduation age currently complete the tertiary-type education. The figure ranges from 20 to 40 per cent in different countries. Independently from e.g. student selection system or the structure of degree studies, the drop-out rates are about 30 per cent. The variation is between 5 and 50 per cent of all students. The huge differences of survival rates should raise many questions about the development of higher education in some countries.

There is a fast growing stock of university-level skills in adult population. This is a very important factor for the future needs of professional development programs.

If we also count the participation rates in polytechnic level education, there are some countries where even over 60 per cent of the age group is taking part in higher education. It is easy to agree with the report that countries with high graduation rates at the tertiary level are the most likely to be developing or maintaining a highly skilled labour force. If over half of the young adults already have higher education, it will deeply change the needs of adult education compared to the situation 10 – 20 years ago, when only a small part of the population took part in any kind of tertiary education.

There are also big differences between the participation rates of men and woman in education. In some countries there is already a clear majority of female graduates at the same time as in some countries the number of male graduates is 20 per cent higher than that of women. One interesting outcome from the report is that the learning results at different age levels are not connected directly to the amount of money used per student. So one interesting area to study later is how good learning results are really achieved at national level.

Kauko Hämäläinen
Editor-in chief of LLinE, Professor of Higher Education, Director of Resource Centre for the Development of Higher Education, University of Helsinki