ABSTRACT

This chapter sets out some of the contexts in which teachers may teach and some of the challenges they might encounter early on in their career. It introduces the teachers to all the other types of students they may work with, and the varying teaching methods they might use. Mature students are identified in the UK as anyone over the age of 21 years when they start studying at undergraduate level. In the UK the concept of 'lifelong learning' that was fostered in the early part of the twenty-first century has been diminished with the introduction of the competitive HE sector. In the UK, distance learning has often been linked to the activities of the Open University which was established in the 1960s to provide education for all adults. The structure and content of distance learning courses will vary considerably between institutions depending on the topic and size of the course.