It did me a lot of good though it pruned my language and style

It did me a lot of good, though; it pruned my language and style. My tutor made me write essays in which I was not allowed to use an adjective or an adverb I got what was called a "good second". After finishing the last exam, I whipped out and into the register office in St Giles. Parents were so dreadfully embarrassed if one wasn't married.. From the ancient village of Brassington, in the Derbyshire Peak District, stretches a view of some of the loveliest walking country in England. Day-trippers come to gaze at the wide horizon, the green hills dotted with sheep, and the higgledy piggledy patchwork quilt of dry stone walls.

Hikers arrive at The Miners' Arms gasping for a drink, unaware that upstairs in a cubbyhole an extraordinary educational experiment is taking place. The pub has become one of the latest outposts in the University of Derby's attempt to bring education to the people. It is what the Government's favourite education buzz-phrase, lifelong learning, is all about - taking courses to adults who missed out on education first-time round, or who want to update their skills. What makes it possible is the new technology. In the cubbyhole over the pub is a computer with keyboard and a video- conferencing link, which means each student can have an individual tutorial with a tutor they can see and be seen by. In the bar downstairs, they record the date and time of their next tutorial That way they will be sure the pub is open for them.

They can also skim through a file which lists what's on offer - information technology, accounting, management, tele-working, book-keeping, A-level psychology and law, GCSE English language and French.These are the courses that the villagers chose when they were asked. Twenty-eight have signed up for the "training club" since the project began last October, their ages ranging from 18 to 58. The hope is they will become turned on to learning, moving on to other courses or even enrolling for a part-time degree The signs are propitious. "Learning is becoming integrated into pub life," says Kay Price, the head of projects at the University of Derby "We did not want to come in and do things to this village. We wanted to create the right framework for learning to blossom."The courses at Brassington are provided by High Peak College in Buxton, a further education college which has merged with the university. None of the students pay a penny because funding comes from the European Union.

Despite the gorgeous scenery, the Peak District is judged a low- wage, low-skill area in need of help. Mining has died out; quarrying employs few people; hill farmers have been hard hit by BSE and the collapse of the price of lamb; and manufacturing has mostly gone.One of the barriers to higher and further education has been the narrow, winding roads The residents don't like the thought of travelling Not all have cars anyway, and the bus comes only once a day. That's why the tutors have had to go to them.All of which fits into the way the university has always seen itself - as serving the local area and region first, and a wider audience second. "The slogan is `We take the product to the people'," says the Vice-chancellor, Roger Waterhouse "We're trying to serve the rural population. In lifelong learning, we see the distinction between higher and further education as artificial and irrelevant to the community and local industry."Waterhouse has a strong supporter in Sir Christopher Ball, the university Chancellor and former principal of Keble College, Oxford. What makes Derby such an interesting university to be associated with, says Sir Christopher, is its wish to start with the learner rather than the course or the learning. That is in contrast to a traditional university such as Oxbridge.