The Higher Education system; A system that serves two purposes: firstly, to provide advanced education, secondly to offer opportunities for future research, debate and the extension of prior knowledge (Wells and Edwards, 2013). In other terms, universities have been recognised as guardians of established knowledge, creators of new knowledge and for this, great contributors to society (Wells and Edwards, 2013).
The understanding of higher education to be the guardians and creators of education, demonstrates the ability of higher education to be shaped and adapted to meet the needs of society and in fulfilling gaps in knowledge. Over the past two centuries, higher education has faced specific changes to the way in which it performs its function and purpose. It is noted that higher education faced changes during the industrial revolution (Mezied, 2016). The industrial revolution provoked emphasis on the function of higher education, demanding the need for more knowledgeable workers, with specialised knowledge in their field to continue to meet the advancements and growth of the economy (Wells and Edwards, 2013).
Secondly, there has been an increased demand for higher education in the past fifty years. With this, expansion was needed. This expansion allowed for more and more individuals to be accepted through the application process, to enable all those who met the entry requirements to benefit from advanced education (Wells and Edwards, 2013). In addition to this, over recent years, more and more older individuals have been seeking higher education, to expand on their knowledge or to expand on their personal interests through more systematic studies (Wells and Edwards, 2013). Older individuals have increasingly been accepted into higher education, being recognised as Mature Students (UCAS, 2018). With this, comes added strain to universities to meet the widened demographic range of the student population, with the need to expand class sizes. This burden on universities has led to the creation of tertiary institutions, such as the Open University (Wells and Edwards, 2013).
The Open University is a form of alternative education to mainstream Higher Education. The Open University sparked revolutionary change to Higher education in the UK following a speech in 1964 by Harold Wilson, the Prime Minister. Harold Wilson viewed universities to be full of ‘snobbery’ and that they provided little or no opportunities for the lower classes (The university that sparked an education revolution – BBC Ideas, 2019). Wilson called the need for a ‘University of the Air’, a university that would cater for all, leading to the formation of The Open University. In its first year, 1974, the Open University received over 40,000 applicants for just 24,000 places. From this, the Open University went on to face massive expansion, with it now being the biggest university in the UK (The university that sparked an education revolution – BBC Ideas, 2019).
References
Admissions Patterns for Mature Applicants 2017 Cycle (2018). UCAS. Available at: https://www.ucas.com/file/175936/download?token=UVSBJLVD.
Mezied, A. A. (2016) The role of Higher Education in The Fourth Industrial Revolution, World Economic Forum. Available at: https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2016/01/what-role-will-education-play-in-the-fourth-industrial-revolution/ (Accessed: 17 May 2021).
The university that sparked an education revolution – BBC Ideas (2019). Available at: https://www.bbc.co.uk/ideas/videos/the-university-that-sparked-an-education-revolutio/p0738lv8?playlist=a-brief-history-of (Accessed: 17 May 2021).
Wells, G. and Edwards, A. (2013) ‘Introduction’, in Wells, G. and Edwards, A. (eds) Pedagogy in Higher Education. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pp. 1–17. doi: 10.1017/CBO9781139035699.001.
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