Nowadays, adult education is a form of education that all countries in the world pay more attention to, and Germany calls it "the pillar of national economic development". As far as the United Nations is concerned, five world adult education conferences have been held and corresponding laws and regulations have been formulated. Our government also attaches great importance to adult education, which is not only promoted by many meetings, but also written into the national development strategic plan. Therefore, developing adult education is a worldwide educational activity and responsibility. In order to confirm this statement, below, we will discuss it from both international and domestic aspects.

I. Adult education in Europe and America.

In Europe and America, the earliest adult education is Britain, which has a history of 100 years and is known as the "hometown of education in the world". Adult education in Britain has now formed six modes of running schools: continuing education, lifelong education, distance education, amateur education, online education and full-time adult education (recruiting a large number of on-the-job personnel and adult college students over 30 years old). In Britain, almost every university pays special attention to adult education, such as Oxford University, Cambridge University, York University, Leeds University, Edinburgh University, London University, Manchester University and so on. They all have their own continuing education colleges, and the registered adult students account for about half of the whole school. Because adult education is a paid service, with small investment and large income, Britain attaches great importance to it. For example, adult education in Britain now earns 50 million pounds a year from EU countries,1350,000 pounds from non-EU countries, and the total profit1850,000 pounds. Adult education, training and consulting earn a higher profit every year, reaching 275 million pounds, second only to the income of full-time colleges and universities. Of course, Britain also attaches great importance to investment. For example, since TTA 1998, TTA has invested 230 million pounds in teacher information and communication technology training. In the EU, adult education has been nationalized, and 15 universities have established adult education exchange programs. There are 29 professional departments in the EU headquarters, among which DG22 headquarters is mainly responsible for education, training and youth work. The slogan of adult education put forward by Germany is: let adult education create lifelong education opportunities for every German, and build a German adult education system according to the three principles of internationality, creativity and lifelong learning. Every year, 6.5438+0.6 million young people in Germany receive 360 kinds of vocational training in more than 500,000 enterprises. There are as many as 6,543,800 employees who receive adult education every year. In French universities, colleges and enterprises, it is an obligation or right to receive adult education and lifelong education. University of Paris VIII in France has opened its doors to workers and self-learners without diplomas. There are five forms of adult education in Sweden: ① Boarding adult college-mass middle school, which has reached 130, with 250,000 students (mainly in Scandinavia); ② Adult study group; ③ Adult education organized by municipal authorities (formal adult education); ④ Labor market training; ⑤ Personality education: sponsored by enterprises and management departments.

Besides, the United States is also a country with relatively developed adult education. There are 23 million people studying adult education now, more than 15 years ago. This is the result of American government's emphasis on adult education. The United States attaches importance to adult education in five aspects: ① attaches importance to adult education legislation and has promulgated many adult education bills; ② Pay attention to the investment in adult education; ③ Attach importance to the academic theory and discipline system construction of adult education; ④ Pay attention to the cultivation of master students and doctoral students in adult education; ⑤ Pay attention to the formation of theoretical team and working team of adult education. American adult education law stipulates that each state has a university responsible for the guidance of academic research on adult education theory and the evaluation and design of adult education. This institution is set up according to the Regulations on Training Bachelor, Master and Doctor of Adult Education and the on-the-job adult education staff in this state. The training of doctoral and master's degree students in American adult education started from 1935 to 197 1. There are 75 universities offering adult education courses for doctoral students and master students. Generally speaking, American adult education has four characteristics: First, adult education in universities and community colleges is developed. In the United States, universities and colleges are the most important institutions to implement adult education, and public primary and secondary schools implement adult education in various communities. Almost all colleges and universities in the United States have established adult education institutions such as continuing education departments and continuing education centers. In recent years, due to the difficulties of college students and finance, many colleges and universities regard adult education courses as a way to solve economic difficulties. 1986, the number of registered adults in credit system time education in colleges and universities reached 5.384 million, and 1995 increased to 61330,000. Second, continuing education and training have been carried out well, and policies and funds have been put in place. For example, when President Bush was in office, the vocational training plan was promulgated in1992; When President Clinton was in office, he made a speech in Little Rock, calling for more investment in education and training. To this end, Clinton asked employers to pay 0.5% of 65,438+workers' wages to train workers, that is, enterprises with 50 employees should pay a training fee of $305 each; Enterprises with 50-90 employees need to pay a training fee of $65,438+$059 per person; Enterprises with 65,438+000-65,438+099 employees need to pay a training fee of $248 per person; Enterprises with more than 500 employees have to pay a training fee of $466 per person. This training activity effectively alleviated the unemployment problem in the labor structure of American society at that time. Third, Americans' views on adult education and learning are open, and diplomas are not important. In the history of American adult education, people study adult education not for diplomas, but to improve their own quality, so as to work and live better. According to the statistics of 1999, among the six adult education activities in the United States, most people take work-related courses and personal development courses, and only 9.4% adults take secondary education and other academic diplomas. Fourth, modern educational technologies such as the Internet are widely used in adult education. Adult education institutions in American universities and community colleges are now using the Internet to teach and offer courses online. For example, at the University of California, Berkeley, they launched online distance adult education at 1994, and the course 175 was launched at 1999, with adult students all over the United States. Now online courses in the United States cover more than half of the States in the United States. According to relevant statistics, 85,093.8+0,000 people attended adult education in the United States in 1999.

In Asia, adult education in Japan is better. Their school-running forms mainly include: technical training for enterprise employees; On-the-job training of primary and secondary school teachers; Distance education in RTVU is an adult education. Japanese primary and secondary school teachers have special time and subsidies for on-the-job training and further study. In addition to continuing education and training, there are two adult education systems in Korea: the bachelor's degree self-study examination system and the credit bank system. Both systems are based on full credits. Adult education in Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan is the earliest and best in China. It originated from adult education in Britain. At present, not only community education, all kinds of academic training and curriculum education are well done, but also education for the elderly and leisure education. Due to the small size of Macao, adult education has just started. Adult education in Taiwan Province Province is also doing well. Adult academic education is mainly provided by the Open University (similar to TV University), and other universities mainly offer general full-time adult education majors.

Second, the enduring adult higher education in China.

Adult education in China began with various training courses, literacy classes and other educational activities in the middle of War of Resistance against Japanese Aggression. But the real adult education should be the advanced classes and training courses for primary and secondary school teachers organized by the Ministry of Higher Education in the early 1950s. That is to say, since 1952 China Renmin University was approved to offer professional continuing education (specialist education) for primary and secondary school teachers, adult education activities have been started all over the country. Adult education in China is mainly composed of three parts, namely, adult higher education founded by colleges and universities and colleges of education, adult education founded by groups or social forces (relying on colleges and universities), and various short training classes, advanced classes and study classes organized by government departments or enterprises and institutions. But what is truly standardized, influential and large-scale is adult education in colleges and universities. This kind of adult education enrolls more than one million students every year, which is enduring. There has been an upward trend in recent years, reaching 3,333,800 last year. Judging from the situation of adult education in colleges and universities, there are several main characteristics: First, leaders of colleges and universities pay more attention to adult education, and set up a unit specializing in adult education-Adult Education College (Continuing Education College), and some colleges and universities also set up auxiliary school-level units (formerly Wuhan Technical University of Surveying and Mapping Adult Education College). Second, it has the longest history (50 years), standardized teaching and strict management, a set of standardized and systematic adult education management rules and regulations, stable management personnel and rich experience in running schools. Third, adult education teachers are strong, teaching facilities and experimental equipment are complete, and the teaching environment is good. Modern teaching technologies such as multimedia can be used for teaching, which can enrich and develop adult students' knowledge vision and innovation ability. At present, there are several forms of adult education in colleges and universities in China.

1. Adult higher education. Adult higher education in colleges and universities is divided into three forms: first, full-time full-time classes (full-time adult classes and self-study exam full-time students classes); Second, part-time correspondence education and evening university education; Third, the emerging form of modern distance network education. Judging from the current situation, these three forms of adult education in colleges and universities are all popular. For example, Wuhan University, Hubei University, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan University of Technology, Huazhong Normal University and other schools in Wuhan have more than 5,000 full-time adult higher education students; Shanghai Fudan University, Shanghai Medical University and Wuhan Zhongnan University of Economics and Law have more than 4,000 night students. There are more than 7000 correspondence students in Hubei Three Gorges College and Hubei Normal College. Tsinghua University, Hunan University, Shanghai Tongji University and other schools started the long-distance network education, and now the number of students in adult higher education exceeds 1 10,000. Adult higher education in the above three situations is still restricted by the plan. If the plan is liberalized, the number of adult students in each school may increase several times. Therefore, colleges and universities attach great importance to this development, and have successively built office buildings and teaching buildings specializing in adult education. Such as Huazhong Normal University, South China Normal University, Hunan Normal University, Hubei Xianning Normal University, Three Gorges University and other schools.

2. Modern distance network education. In addition to the Ministry of Education, a large part of modern distance network education is online course education and online training education. This kind of modern education form, which has just emerged in China, has the advantages of being free from space and time constraints and convenient for adults from all walks of life to learn, but it is generally only offered by ordinary colleges and universities because of the large amount of capital investment and high requirements for teachers. For example, China Renmin University, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Huazhong Normal University, Hubei Institute of Education and other institutions of higher learning have set up online colleges. China Renmin University invested tens of millions of yuan to set up an online education center. In recent years, it has established online undergraduate and postgraduate education, online courses, online training and other multi-functional education, and now there are more than100000 online students. This is a form of adult education with a good development trend, which is worthy of recognition. According to incomplete statistics, there are more than 500 colleges and universities approved by the Ministry of Education and the Provincial Department of Education to establish online colleges. Although some conditions are not fully met, its enrollment momentum is also good. For example, the Network College, which was just established last year by Hubei Institute of Education, has enrolled tens of thousands of adult students. It can be seen that there is no doubt that the popularity and development momentum of distance online education are promising.

3. Continuing education and professional training Continuing education and professional training education is a form of education focusing on cultivating and improving the professional skills and quality of on-the-job personnel. This form of education is relatively deep abroad, and almost all education departments, schools, enterprises, companies and communities are doing it. At the same time, it is also the main direction of the development of adult education in China in recent years. Tens of millions of on-the-job employees participate in such training and study every year throughout the country. At present, this form of education and training has not been thoroughly mastered in domestic colleges and universities. Although many colleges and universities also offer this kind of training and education, most of them are compulsory training programs, which are not really social continuing education activities, nor have they been transferred from a single form of academic education. But there are also good universities facing the society, such as those in Beijing and Shanghai. For example, East China Normal University in Shanghai has started continuing education and professional training since 1990s, and thousands of employees and social adults participate in its study and training every year. This short-term training and education aims to cultivate and improve the new scientific and theoretical level of on-the-job personnel, expand their knowledge horizons, and enable them to have new abilities and qualities necessary for social development and work in the 2/kloc-0 century. Therefore, in large and medium-sized cities with relatively developed economy and relatively concentrated population, it should be said that the development of continuing education and short-term training education has good development prospects. Colleges and universities should take the initiative to do this work well.