The BeLL-study examines the wider benefits of liberal adult education in nine European countries. The target group are active adult learners, highly educated as well as lower educated persons, who have participated in liberal education courses and therefore experienced wider benefits. Recent studies demonstrated that non-formal adult education can lead to several wider benefits (Manninen 2010; Schuller et.al. 2005). But they were country specific (mainly Finland and UK) and/or related to only one topic (parenting, health behaviour). Following up to these results, the present study is designed to elucidate a) the complexity of wider benefits of non –formal liberal adult education and b) comparableness and differences on wider benefits of non-formal liberal education in different areas of Europe. The direct comparison of nine countries serves to answer the question whether the benefits of the general adult education depends on the different social framework conditions and cultural differences or not. The methodical approach: quantitative interviews (1000 per country), qualitative interviews (10 per country) and an institutional survey-feedback will make sure a broad and excellent base of data. Outputs in general: 1.country specific comparable results in nine different European countries 2.empirically verified arguments for stakeholders and politicians to strengthen Liberal Adult Education in general and in their countries 3.Participating institutions get crucial informations about quality. Impact: - complement the implementation of the European Commission's Action Plan on adult learning; - contribute to the quality of adult learning as understanding of participants becomes stronger and the delivery system will be more attuned to the needs of learners; - support the development of comparative statistics on liberal education provision in member states; - help to analyze the potentially crucial role of third sector and civil society in the field of lifelong learning.