Not so long ago, alongside the splendid edifice of full-time university education, there was a thriving array of university degree-level programmes, offered part-time in local settings, which was world-leading in its availability and in its ambitions. One could access it as part of a career-change need, a professional accreditation or for the pleasure of learning. Very many universities, including some of what is now called the Russell group of research-led academies, not only took great pride in having an accessible, part-time version of their academic portfolio but promoted it assiduously through dedicated "extra-mural" or lifelong learning departments. The rise and rise of the Open University itself was part of this wider flourishing. Within the last decade much of this has turned sour. Although specific part-time professional and specialist higher education survives and thrives within university departments, some universities have effectively dropped lifelong learning as a concept. Most have trimmed it and few now promote such departments as beacons of excellence and accessibility. In this article, the author explores what has gone wrong.