LIFELONG LEARNING AT THE UNIVERSITY OF ALICANTE: A GENERAL APPROACH

Lifelong learning can be defined as any learning activity performed at any moment of one's life with the aim of increasing the amount of knowledge, personal, civic and social skills as well as professional competences [1]. The importance of permanent learning and its whole integration in Higher Education was treated in the Declaration of Bologne and debated later in the meetings held with the ministers of the European Union biannually. Nowadays, Spanish universities generally offer a solid and consistent program of lifelong learning which is qualified in all areas of knowledge. Its management may vary from one to the other. Precisely, at the University of Alicante, there is no specific office to manage lifelong learning offers, as it is decentralised and distributed in different centres and services. In this article, we provide the results of a study on the sources of lifelong learning activities developed by the University of Alicante. We have analysed their characteristics, their management models, the typology of users, etc. We have concluded with some proposals to improve the current formative offer in this area.