There's a particular kind of institutional irony that higher ed can pull off with a straight face. Universities with long histories and genuine reputations for innovation are weighing whether they need the very thing that 687 other universities have decided they cannot do without.
Six hundred and eighty-seven universities in the US have a school or college dedicated to professional and continuing education (PCE). This isn't a fringe movement (some of these units have been around since the early years of the last century), and these aren't mid-tier universities hedging their bets on adult learners. The list includes Columbia, Cornell, Georgetown, Northeastern, Northwestern, NYU, and Boston University; universities that actually see the landscape of American higher education and understand that the traditional model, built for 18 to 22 year olds attending full-time and sitting in classrooms, is not sustainable.
The case for maintaining a well-funded and agile PCE unit should be obvious. Working adults are increasingly looking to higher education for career specific skills and competencies. Traditional age students are demanding flexible and accessible part-time pathways. Employers want to hire people with credentials that are relevant and immediately applied. None of that fits into the traditional model.
The broader point is actually a simple one. Higher ed is changing and the universities best positioned to survive that change are the ones that figure out how to serve more than one kind of student. The universities that defund and devalue their PCE schools and colleges, while their peers are actively expanding their units, will be performing a genuinely impressive act of self-defeat.
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