Geraldine Prince: 'Come away in'

The sighs of relief in many quarters that accompanied last week's announcement of the merger of Edinburgh College of Art with Edinburgh University was matched by the sharp crack of knuckles being rapped over the college's precarious financial position. A stout defence by the college points to the impact of the global financial collapse which coincided with the college's (completely correct) decision to consolidate its campus to benefit students and staff.

Throughout the protracted, and contested, merger discussions of the past year, one section of the college's community wasn't heard: the thousands of lifelong learners, past and present, who pay top dollar for short art courses and summer schools. Eager to learn, they sign up for day or evening classes run by energetic young artists and designers deploying professional expertise to teach them very well indeed.

ECA's lifelong learners and part-time degree students found a voice through the public platform of the Government consultation process. Coherent, well informed, specific, visionary - and occasionally a bit cross - they argued a remarkable case, weaving together personal stories, shared ambition, strategic thinking and government policy. They said one thing: universities are not for the privileged few. Learning is not the preserve of the young, healthy, single and carefree. Learning is for those for whom dyslexia or other disability or poor health offer immense hurdles; for those with young children or caring for frail and well-respected parents; university education is for those who, having made a wrong life choice, want to retrieve it. Others - the 'Educated Ritas' and their male equivalents, have glimpsed as adults the possibility of life changing personal fulfilment denied in childhood through muddle, despair or personal catastrophe. University education is for the unemployed who see engaging both brain and spirit as the way back to productive life; and for the over-employed, questioning whether a high salary is reward enough if the price is the loss of creativity and personal growth.

Those studying in ECA's Centre for Continuing Studies have paid eye-wateringly high prices for courses for just over 20 years. As Director, it was my woeful duty each year to look at the massive costs of being part of a world-class institution, increase the fees, apologise profusely to the students, and pray they would keep on turning up. Which they did, also grumbling about costs, but knowing that by the end of a term, working in a basement studio that was either stuffy or freezing, they would put on display a piece of work and hear someone say 'that's real art college level work – well done'.

An evening class finishing at 9.30 pm on a Thursday in late November is not a great gig, for tutor or student. Despite the logistical problems, however, the model contains a key to solving the funding crisis in higher education generally: the late medieval timetables of many universities have to be replaced by the 12 hour day; the seven day week; the 50 week academic year - in other words, the university world needs to mirror the working experience of "normal" people. Flexibility; part-time learning; distanced based study; group projects; network groups; reflective practice; studying for parcels of credit: not just ECA's lifelong learners but adults throughout Scotland are showing that the shake up of traditional university modes necessary to address the HE funding crisis is already under-way. The Scottish Universities Association for Lifelong Learning, and its UK counterpart UALL (of which Edinburgh University Principal Sir Tim O'Shea is a past Chair) are keepers of an expertise and a narrative built on the heroic efforts of students and staff to achieve the paramount goal of any competitive 21st century society: a well educated workforce, constantly re-skilling, and an engaged public: alert, informed, participating fully in civil society.

To achieve this, the new Edinburgh University/Edinburgh College of Art, through its merged continuing education provision in which is embedded, at ECA, the fiercely defended part-time degree, can exemplify John Henry Newman's "idea of a university". For Newman, a university was not just about the advancement of knowledge, which requires research, entailing high costs if it is to be world-leading. Newman's university was also about the widespread dissemination of knowledge through teaching. If that goal is missed, the costs are even higher: the perpetuation of elitism; social exclusion; disengagement; an undereducated workforce leaving Scotland struggling to make its mark in a fast-moving global economy.

ECA's Centre for Continuing Studies, from which I stepped down as Director on 31 January after 29 years as lecturer both at ECA and in the Fine Art department at Edinburgh University, was inspired by George Davie's notion of 'the democratic intellect'. The part-time degree in Combined Studies exemplified Davie's belief in thinking outside narrowly specialised silos, as did Hugh MacDiarmuid who claimed 'the only place where water-tight compartments are of any use is on a sinking ship'. ECA is not sinking, and Edinburgh University isn't just a swanky life-raft. The Funding Council's support for both institutions' intentions to develop continuing education provision jointly extends the possibilities for lateral thinking and creative synergies in terms of courses and opportunity, attracting a community of adult learners whom both Newman and Davie would have recognised: those of democratic intellect and of all abilities who assert their claims to learning. Yes, it is all done at terribly inconvenient times, and in completely fragmented bits, and our students do indeed complain about the cold coffee, or the locked rooms, or the no car parking - but they claim their much-valued Individual Learning Account Government grants if they can, and they pay their fees. They expect that this university-college will be 'for them', as it will be for young people, unable to resort to the famous 'bank of mum and dad', who will find a way to make part-time study fit alongside a part-time job. As a new department of adult education and art studies is forged inventively between Edinburgh University and the Art College to those of all abilities who want their shot at a world-class education the invitation should be clear: "come away in".

• Geraldine Prince is Director of Centre for Continuing Studies at ECA