Comparative Overview of Study Results

Organisation and Management of Continuing Higher Education: Findings of a Comparative Study in Six Countries from a German Perspective

“…This question is linked to which extent HE institutions are prepared to make continuing education more accessible for non-traditional students or people with little or no experience in higher education. As we found out there are major differences between the countries compared in this study: German and Austrian universities are less accessible for non-traditional students whereas the easiest access could be observed in France and the UK (Hanft and Knust, 2008a). This accessibility seems to lead to an active commitment to recognition of formal or informal competences.…”

“…With regards to types of organisation, findings of the country studies show a tendency towards a more centralised organisation of CHE in Austria, Finland, France and Germany, and a rather decentralised organisation in the UK and the USA (Hanft and Knust, 2008a). The development and management of CHE programmes in Austria is organised predominantly decentralised by the subject departments and the support services are located centrally in the HE institutions (Pellert and Cendon, 2008).…”

“…This observation was especially made in the USA, Finland, France or the UK. Therefore, faculties with strong research reputation are often more committed to CHE than others (Hanft and Knust, 2008a), which on the one hand seems to be surprising because of the limited time resources of faculty members: 'We cannot do any continuing education, we need all our capacities for research and undergraduate education' is a common excuse in the German-speaking countries for an underdeveloped commitment to CHE. On the other hand, it is not at all surprising because CHE units often acquire good reputation as 'laboratories' for learning and teaching innovation and can help disseminating new research findings to the interested public or experts (this will be mentioned again later for the USA and Finland).…”

“…There are some countries which see lifelong learning as an important issue in a competitive international education market and others which show almost no interest. In the following, we discuss some characteristics of lifelong learning in the countries compared (Hanft and Knust, 2008a).…”

“…7 Furthermore, there are increasing opportunities to get certificates or full degrees in CHE, although the majority of programmes are so called 'short courses'. This means that there are clear signs towards longer courses in CHE that lead to full degrees (Hanft and Knust, 2008a). For the German-speaking countries, this is a fairly new development which is actually becoming very popular.…”