Although broadening equal access to higher education has been an objective public policy for decades, little is known about the effectiveness of alternative means for achieving this goal. Moreover, it has raised a need of explaining the heterogeneity in Higher Education attainment across European countries, where high level of graduate population…

Adult and continuing education has the dual function of contributing to employability and economic growth, on the one hand, and responding to broader societal challenges, in particular promoting social cohesion, on the other. Companies and families support important investments that have, to date, ensured important growth in both skills and the…

The last few years have seen an acceleration in "the drive toward the market" as the principal element underlying higher education policy in western Europe. The trend, seen in historical perspective, is more than just another example of higher education policy as crisis management. (MSE)

Rapid growth of non-state colleges and universities in Eastern Europe has been fueled by strong demand for education and a limited number of student places at state universities, which, until recently, had a monopoly on higher education in the region. While some institutions are shoddy profit-making ventures, others are models of innovation. (MSE)

The educational needs of Eastern and Central Europe can be met by distance education. Since the 1990 founding of the European Distance Education Network, proponents of open and distance education have expanded the scope of their activities. Governments and institutions must find the best ways to use technology to integrate traditional and distance…

European case studies on strategies for adult education are presented as representative or exemplary approaches to universal access. Each is described within a historical and social context: the British Community Colleges and the Open University; the Swedish Study Circles; the Evening Folk High School in Germany; the social-cultural animation…