Where have all the flowers gone?: The wilting of university adult and community education in Aotearoa New Zealand

Abstract

In the 1996 special issue of ACCESS a number of articles were commissioned to "provide a snapshot of the diverse field of Adult and Community Education (ACE) in this country" (Benseman and Findsen, 1996: i). within this publication, I wrote a critique of University-based Adult and Continuing Education, emphasising then current trends and issues, based on my work experience at both Auckland and Waikato universities in respective centres for continuing education (Findsen, 1996). Five years later, I constructed a more analytical critique on what had occurred at the University of Auckland's Centre for Continuing Education (CCE) subsequent to a review. The overall tone for that review was largely pessimistic, based on seemingly continual restructurings of the CCE by senior management, rendering the unit increasingly powerless in a more entrepreneurial and managerial environment (Findsen, 2001).