Permanent education and its impact on higher education

Abstract

The re-assessment of the concept of permanent education is one of the most important events in the history of education in the second half of the 20th century; the idea of continuity in the educational process is not a new one, but only during the last decades have educational theorists pointed out more accurately the relevant consequences the adoption of this perspective will generate for the future of teaching and learning processes. Even if the concept of permanent education owes much to adult education, they should not be considered as synonyms. To restrict permanent education to an age group is a contradiction. This paper defines the concepts to enable the characterization of permanent education in order to subsequently examine its repercussions on contemporary higher education.