ABSTRACT
Lifelong learning in a middle-income country like South Africa exists between the political and economic pressures of a large proportion of young people, on the one hand, and the need for ongoing access to learning opportunities throughout life as the ‘front-end loading model’ of schooling is inadequate for the majority of impoverished people. This chapter reflects back over the last ten or so years of higher education in lifelong learning, using both a national study on the impact of the South African Higher Education Qualifications (Sub)Framework on adult learners (DLL 2010a) and a case study of one historically black university, the University of Western Cape. It describes the competing social, economic and political currents which foreground the essential role of adult and lifelong learning champions in keeping equitable spaces open for adult learners.
