ABSTRACT
Tomorrow’s colleges will be developed by their managements as they face the pressures for change and respond to them in line with the needs of the communities and industrial/commercial industries they serve. They will be built around flexibility of response, open access and accreditation of alternative ways of learning. They are likely to have the following characteristics:
• Structure: a menu of alternative learning and accreditation opportunities based on:
♦ individualised learning based on modular programmes which allow individuals to ‘pick and mix’ their activities to meet their own particular needs
centres, open learning, partnership agreements and personalised learning contracts
♦ continuous enrolment throughout the year onto roll on/roll off programmes
• Support systems: the outcome of these learning and accreditation structures will be a change in the way college buildings are laid out and arranged to provide:
opportunities ♦ resource-based learning ♦ increased access support for students with specific educational
needs ♦ increased child care facilities ♦ student-centred admissions systems ♦ high profile student services
• Management systems: resulting from the above, colleges will need to develop new ways of measuring efficiency and effectiveness, which take into account and place equal value on all the ways in which individuals can achieve accreditation for learning. These will include resource target-setting and monitoring based on key indicators of flexibility and student progress and the ability to track students through all the pathways to accreditation and allow them to accumulate credit.
