Comparative Analyses of Adult Education Systems of England, Denmark, and Turkey in the Context of The Lifelong Learning Policies of the European Union

The purpose of this study is to make a comparative analyse of goals, structure, and legal liability in adult education systems in England, Denmark, and Turkey. Since these countries are member, ex- member, or candidate countries of the European Union, the Union’s lifelong learning policies were also taken into consideration while doing the comparison. The method of the research is comparative adult education. This study does not include human subjects, thus ethics committee approval decision is not needed. The goals, structure, and legal liability of England, Denmark, and Turkey’s adult education systems were compared. The findings showed that these three countries’ adult education targets are parallel with the EU’s lifelong learning goals. According to the analyses of the adult education structure, it has been noted that the local governments are active in England. In Denmark, three different stakeholders can be seen and they reach a wider group. On the other hand, Turkey’s adult education is a public service. Whereas local authorities are responsible for legal liability in England, state and associations are responsible for it in Denmark. The central government is responsible for legal liability in Turkey. It was showed that the adult education provision in Denmark is much more withstanding than the one in Turkey and England.