Abstract
This chapter outlines how the neo-liberalisation of universities and governmental policies have disproportionately affected access to degree-level education among part-time and mature degree-level students. It explains how these students have largely lost the option of studying in dedicated adult education departments while also being marginalised by a university culture which equates its duty of widening participation with the recruitment of ‘standard’, that is, young, entrants. The chapter explains about the origins and development of Leicester Vaughan College, a community-benefit society co-operative. In the 1919 Adult Education Report Vaughan College was held up as a rare survivor: in 2019 that tradition continues through co-operation, as a direct reaction to managerialism. The chapter also outlines how the College can redress employment and financial inequalities experienced by teachers of adult students and how, through co-operative governance and learning, it can connect students, staff and the local community in a more democratic way.
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Notes
- 1.
Rules of Leicester Vaughan College Ltd., Section 4: Objects (hereafter ‘Objects’).
- 2.
Sally Birch, Vaughan student and campaigner, first used this term when interviewed by Radio Leicester, 16 September 2016.
- 3.
Brown, C. 2012. A Blessing to the Town: 150 Years of Vaughan College, Leicester, 16. Leicester: Leicester University Institute of Lifelong Learning.
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Atkins, E. 1912. Birth and Early Years. In The Vaughan Working Men’s College, Leicester. 1862–1912, ed. Edward Atkins, 45–54, 46. London: Adams Bros and Shardlow.
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- 10.
University of Leicester: https://www2.le.ac.uk/staff/announcements/microsites/relocation-of-vaughan-college-teaching/news-and-updates/vaughan-college-move-underlines-our-commitment-to-adult-learning. Accessed 31 October 2018.
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Burgess, R. 2013. Letter: College Coming into Heart of the University. Leicester Mercury, July 22.
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University of Leicester Website: https://www2.le.ac.uk/staff/announcements/vaughan-centre-for-lifelong-learning-update. Accessed 21 November 2018.
- 13.
See, for example, the summary on University of Leicester’s website: https://www2.le.ac.uk/institution/unions/ucu/news/round-up-of-opposition-to-the-proposed-closure-of-vaughan-centre. Accessed 31 October 2018.
- 14.
Ashworth, Jon, MP for Leicester South, quoted in Dryden, F. 2016. 3000 Sign Petition to Try to Save Vaughan Centre. Leicester Mercury, August 29: 12.
- 15.
Martin, D. 2016. Vaughan Centre Is Paying Its Way, So Why Close It? Leicester Mercury, August 12: 10.
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Dryden, F. 2016. 2000 Sign Petition to Save Learning Centre. Leicester Mercury, June 24: 6.
- 23.
Open letter. 2016. Too Important to be Left to Chance. Daily Telegraph, September 4: 17.
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For example, Barnes, S-A., D. Hughes, and K. Adriaanse. 2016. Adult Education: Too Important to be Left to Chance. Adult Learner Survey Research Report for the All Party Parliamentary Group for Adult Education (APPG)—Inquiry into Adult Education.
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Boyle, P. 2016. Letter to Vijay Singh Riyait, Abbey Ward Councillor. June 1.
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Butcher, 10.
- 29.
Boyle. Letter to Councillor Riyait.
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Butcher, 7; Ashworth, J., MP. 2017. Column: In the House. Sometimes, a Second Chance Is All We Need. Leicester Mercury, December 2: 24.
- 31.
University of Leicester’s OFFA agreement 2016/2017: 7.14.
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Bryant, E. 2016. Lifelong learning trumps trendy. Letter to THES, September 22.
- 33.
Bryant. Letter to THES.
- 34.
Butcher, 7.
- 35.
Marsh, C. 2017. The Feeling of Engagement: Lifelong Learning About Religion in Part-Time, Secular Higher Education as a Private and Public Good. Widening Participation and Lifelong Learning 19 (1): 8–32, 27.
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LUCU. Facebook site. https://www.facebook.com/leicesterucu/. Accessed 6 November 2018. Anon. 2018. Building Tension. Private Eye, September 21: 38.
- 37.
As reflected in this Gov.UK page: https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/widening-participation-in-higher-education. Accessed 21 November 2018; See also Bill Jones cited in Wheeler, C. 2016. Anger as Adult Education Faces Sharp Decline. Sunday Express, July 31.
- 38.
University of Leicester Council. Minutes of a meeting held on Friday 16 September 2016, 4 (16/M72).
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Jones et al., 3.
- 40.
Butcher, 5.
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Jones in Wheeler. Sunday Express, July 31.
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HESA. 2016. Table T3a—Non-continuation Following Year of Entry: UK Domiciled Full-Time First Degree Entrants 2013/14. https://www.hesa.ac.uk/data-and-analysis/performance-indicators/releases/2014-15-non-continuation. Accessed 6 November 2018.
- 44.
For a forcible characterisation of the latter as ‘proletarianisation of academic labour’, see Hall, R. 2018. On the Alienation of Academic Labour and the Possibilities for Mass Intellectuality. Triple C 16: 97.
- 45.
There were 62 at the start of the ‘consultation’. With thanks to Paul Cutts and Clive Marsh for this information.
- 46.
As this tutor is now employed by the university, we feel that it is best to preserve their anonymity here.
- 47.
See Collini, S. 2012. What Are Universities For? Harmondsworth: Penguin.
- 48.
GC in the ‘Save Vaughan’ petition. 2016. https://www.change.org/p/the-university-of-leicester-save-the-vaughan-centre-for-lifelong-learning. Accessed 10 October 2018.
- 49.
Cllr Vijay Singh Riyait. 2016. Letter to the Leicester Mercury, June 11.
- 50.
SK in ‘Save Vaughan’ petition.
- 51.
GH in ‘Save Vaughan’ petition.
- 52.
Anon. 2018. Building Tension. Private Eye, September 21: 38.
- 53.
‘Objects’.
- 54.
This was because with the removal of the Vaughan Centre courses outside the university those able to oversee validation of these specialist courses had also become external to the university.
- 55.
‘Objects’.
- 56.
Atkins. Birth and Early Years, 46.
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Neary, M., and J. Winn. 2017. The Social Science Centre, Lincoln: The Theory and Practice of a Radical Idea. Journal on Research Policy and Evaluation 1: 4. Also see Chap. 4 by Saunders in this volume.
- 58.
MB in Save Vaughan Petition.
- 59.
TM in Save Vaughan petition.
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Egglestone, Corin, Conor Stevens, Emily Jones, and Fiona Aldridge. 2018. Adult Participation in Learning Survey 2017, 50, 54. Department of Education.
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Ashworth. Sometimes, a Second Chance Is All We Need, 24.
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Butcher, 33.
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‘Objects’.
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University of Aberdeen, MS 24 (Bestiary, England, c.1200), fol. 56 recto. https://www.abdn.ac.uk/bestiary/ms24/f56r. Accessed 11 January 2019.
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Faire, L., Gill, M. (2019). Phoenix from the Ashes: The Origins and Development of Leicester Vaughan College. In: Noble, M., Ross, C. (eds) Reclaiming the University for the Public Good. Palgrave Critical University Studies. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-21625-2_7
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