This paper, the fourth of a series, covers the impact of the Workers' Educational Association (WEA) on the field of adult education in England. The content is presented in four sections. The first one briefly covers the origins of the WEA. Section 2, a review of WEA's founding principles, concentrates on the objectives of working class participation, university standards, and democratization and the problems which arose in attempting to embrace them. The third section, on aspirations in practice, reviews the history and impact of the WEA from 1903 until after the Second World War in 1946. Section 4 covers what effects the developments in a changing society from 1946 to 1976 had on the WEA movement. This section along with the third one comprise two-thirds of this paper. The fifth section discusses the present and future prospects of the WEA. And section 6 assesses the impact the WEA has had on its community and advises in a cautionary tone what its present and future priorities should be if it is to remain effective in the realm of adult education in England. (EM)