ABSTRACT
The future that we might imagine for tertiary and higher education and training as a manifestation of Western society today is markedly different from what we imagined some ten years ago. The social, cultural and political changes which have occurred in the last decade have moved the concept of education and training well beyond the traditional parameters of university and college teaching and learning into the broader economic and political sphere. Entering this new sphere has made it necessary for the tertiary education and training sectors to change their role, purpose and modus operandi (Coaldrake and Stedman 1998). The traditional boundaries between tertiary and higher education, and the privileged position held by tertiary institutions as places of learning, have come under scrutiny. Indeed, so too has the whole culture of education and training – in particular, how, where and for what purposes learning can and should take place (Readings 1996). As Haughey in Chapter Two, and Paul in Chapter Three have shown us, new concepts such as flexible learning, workplace learning and distributed learning have emerged, either in competition or in parallel with established concepts of education and training – thus broadening existing educational provisions (and types of providers).
