Closing Remarks By SUSS Vice President (SPE) and Vice Provost (GES), Associate Professor Justina Tan at the Andragogy for Impact (ANFI) 2026

1. A very good afternoon to all. I hope the past few days have given you fresh perspectives, new connections and perhaps a few good questions to take back with you.

2. Our theme this year is “Adult Learning: Reimagining, Reinventing, Transforming”. Before we reimagine adult learning, we need to answer three simple questions. Who are our learners? Where do they learn? And who needs to work together to support them? As we close, let me say a few words on each.

3. First, the adult learners of today are not the adult learners of yesterday.

4. The word “andragogy” was first used in 1833, by a German schoolteacher named Alexander Kapp. More than a hundred years later, in 1968, Malcolm Knowles made it widely known. He saw adults as self-directed learners. They draw on their experience, and they want learning that matters to their work and their lives. That idea has guided our field for over fifty years. And much of it still holds true.

5. But think about the adult learner Knowles had in mind. That learner usually studied once, had one career and retired at a predictable age. Today, the adult learner could be a professional switching industries for the third time. It could be a worker in her sixties, planning the next ten years of her working life. It could be a young gig worker with no employer to pay for training. They learn in short bursts, often on their phones, and more and more with generative AI by their side. Some come to us because they are curious. Many come because their job has changed, or has gone.

6. Each of these learners needs something different from us. We cannot assume that every adult walks in confident, self-directed and with time to spare. Some are nervous about learning again after many years. Others bring deep experience that we have not yet learnt to recognise. So if andragogy is to stay true to its purpose, we must keep getting to know our learners. We must serve adults as they are, not as we imagine them to be.

7. Second, when learners’ lives are this varied, no single institution can serve them well on its own. Adult education has to work as part of an ecosystem.

8. Adults learn in classrooms and online. But they also learn on the job, in the community and at home. Whether that learning sticks depends on many players. Employers, who give people the time to learn and the chance to use what they have learnt. Government agencies, which fund and recognise learning. Community groups, which reach people who might never walk through our doors. And technology providers, whose tools now shape how millions of people learn.

9. When these parts are connected, learning leads to somewhere. To a better job. A new career. A fuller life. When they are not, even a well-designed course can go nowhere. Employers may not recognise it. Or learners simply cannot fit it around work and family.

10. Lastly, what we can do together. An ecosystem is only as strong as its connections. Some of those connections can start right here, in this room.

11. So let me ask: what might we do together next? Could researchers from different countries build shared evidence on what helps adults keep going, especially those who come to learning under pressure? Could an educator and an employer try out how generative AI can support learning on the job, without leaving older workers behind? Could institutions across our region work together, so that learning is recognised wherever it happens?

12. At SUSS, these questions are close to home. Our students come to us at every age and stage of life. Most of them are juggling their studies with work and family. As Singapore’s university for lifelong learning, we are committed to understanding them well, to working across the ecosystem and to partnering with all of you.

13. ANFI is part of this commitment. Every two years, it gives us a space to share what we know and to explore new questions in adult learning. And as we think about how learning can serve adults in all their different circumstances, inclusion has to be part of that conversation. So it is fitting that today, we are also launching the Palgrave Series on Diversity and Inclusion in Asia and the Pacific. This new series gives us one more platform to explore these questions across education, workplaces and society in our region.

14. Before we close, I would like to thank our speakers, panellists and presenters. Thank you for sharing your expertise, and for challenging all of us to think more deeply.

15. To our partners and collaborators, thank you for your support. To all our delegates, especially those who have travelled from overseas, thank you for bringing your experience, your questions and your perspectives to ANFI. And to the organising team and everyone behind the scene, thank you for making this conference possible.

16. So, let me sum up. Know our learners as they are today. Connect across the ecosystem that serves them. And act on this together. I look forward to seeing what we can, and what we will achieve.