Michael Campion

The article starts by conveying the sense of confusion that those working in universities currently face and feel. It then relates this to a far broader problematique - in essence, that within the university sector, a productivity consciousness is driving out the space for reflection and contemplation - core prerequisites for what is best about universities. The beginnings of an account of distance educators' failure to respond to this set of problems is offered, making reference en route to what it refers to as the 'learning cult'. This is followed by an effort to relate the dominant discourse in education to the development of capitalism through education's tightening relationship to employment. A brief account of the era subsequent to Fordism including changes that are seen to be occurring in the nature and distribution of work across the globe follows. This is seen to have implications for education and specifically for university education which result in a call for a 'New Great Debate' about education and its purposes, and a call for distance educators to play a part in initiating this debate.

Changes in academic work and the implications of these changes for academics continuing professional education are analysed so as to reveal patterns of change which are of more general relevance. I will pay particular attention to the influence of changing technologies — in the narrow sense of changing machinery (computers) and the broader sense of organisational structures (entrepreneurial, neo‐Fordist, neo‐bureaucratic organisations, etc.). To illustrate how things could be otherwise, I will look at the implications for academic staff development of the increasing distance between the contemporary idea of the professional academic, and the idea of the intellectual.

We live in a society with ever-changing needs and expectations. Education practitioners and policy makers need therefore to face the challenges of new economic, social and technological conditions in their work. There is a global concern to develop forms of education and training which are open to the demands of needs of learners, and which are accessible at times and places suitable to those learners. Governments, institutions and practitioners are developing and implementing policies which reflect these trends. The overall theme of this book is the relationship between government and organizational policies and the work of practitioners in open and distance learning. The book does this by exploring a selection of international examples. The authors, many of them recognized experts, write from a wide range of international and organizational perspectives. Each one draws on significant experience within his or her field.