Summary: This presentation provides a critical overview of the discourse concerning Higher Education as promoted by the EU with respect to the idea of rendering Europe the ‘most competitive knowledge economy’. This has implications for a variety of fields notably university continuing education and lifelong learning in general. A critical analysis of this EU discourse in light of recent trends in HE in various places in Europe will be provided.

Profile: Professor Mayo is Associate Professor in the Department of Education Studies at the University of Malta. He has published many books and articles in the area of adult education, and is widely known for his books Gramsci, Freire and Adult Education. Possibilities for Transformative Action (1999) and Liberating Praxis. Paulo Freire's Legacy for Radical Education and Politics (2004), the latter having been granted an American Educational Studies Association Critics' Choice Award in 2005. In 2006, he coauthored with Carmel Borg Learning and Social Difference. Challenges for Public Education and Critical Pedagogy and. in 2007, again with Borg, Public Intellectuals, Radical Democracy and Social Movements. A book of Interviews.