UPCEA Updates

Your one-stop shop for the latest Association happenings, plus thoughts from the desk of CEO Bob Hansen.

People & Programs: NC State University Vice Provost for Continuing Education Alice Warren to Retire

By UPCEA | August 22, 2018

Alice Warren, vice provost for continuing education at North Carolina State University, has announced that she is retiring effective October 1, 2018. Warren joined the McKimmon Center for Extension and Continuing Education at North Carolina State University in 1979. In 2008, she was appointed assistant vice chancellor and director of the division. Under Warren’s leadership…

The Commons: Ending Knowledge Discrimination

By UPCEA | August 17, 2018

As the continuing and online education community knows all too well, in American higher education, where you learn something is more important than how well you know and can apply it. The average adult spends over 700 hours a year engaged in purposeful learning outside of the formal college curriculum. And the knowledge, skills, and…

In Memoriam: Alexander N. Charters

By UPCEA | August 16, 2018

Alexander N. Charters (1916-2018) died in August 2018. Dr. Charters was an internationally-recognized American expert in the field of adult and continuing education. Dr. Charters was born in Verdant Valley, Alberta, Canada in 1916. He earned a B.A. in history and English from the University of British Colombia in 1938, and a Ph.D. in adult…

Webinar (August 8): Philanthropic Giving Patterns of Online Alumni

By UPCEA | July 17, 2018

Hosted by the Online Administration Network With the growing number of alumni completing online educational experiences, we need to be thinking about the long-term implications to higher education. The potential for development continues to grow with this population and in time could be a significant and badly needed source of revenue for colleges and universities…

New for 2018 – UPCEA Excellence in Enrollment Management Award

By UPCEA | July 12, 2018

Enrollment management is central to the success of professional, continuing, and online units. In the last 40 years, enrollment management has evolved from a theoretical concept in undergraduate education to a highly sophisticated framework for attracting, retaining, and graduating students. The UPCEA Excellence in Enrollment Management Award recognizes an outstanding professional, continuing, and/or online (PCO) organization (unit…

Webinar (August 1): How UC-Davis is Assessing the Market for Non-Degree Programs Targeted at Career Advancers

By UPCEA | July 9, 2018

Hosted by Emsi and UPCEA Identifying marketable skills is a key step in continuing and professional education program development. Job postings signal the skills and competencies employers and hiring managers expect in new hires.  As such, jobs data is an important proxy for market demand for a skill. But what if a learning program is…

Webinar (July 11): Designing Extended Education Programs and Marketing to Meet the Needs of the Corporate Market

By UPCEA | June 25, 2018

Jointly hosted by the Community and Economic Engagement & Marketing, Enrollment, and Student Services Networks Programming and marketing for the corporate market need to be done differently than for open enrollment programs. This webinar will examine successful examples from the UC Irvine corporate programming and outreach and a survey of best practices derived from MindMax’s…

We’re putting your feedback to use

By UPCEA | June 21, 2018

Recently, we conducted a member needs assessment to ask members how we can improve the value we offer to all those in the UPCEA community. A special thanks to all of you who took the time to share your thoughts with us. We’ve carefully reviewed your feedback, and I’m pleased to share what we’re doing…

Other Blogs and News:

An AI-Aware Approach to Online Assessment

The New Assessment Challenge in Online Learning Generative AI is complicating how we teach working adults in online and professional continuing education. I recently asked a group of educators who teach online about their biggest concerns regarding AI and assessment of student learning. They had many! These educators were worried about:  enforcing academic integrity when…

Benchmarking in Higher Education: What to Measure and Why It Changes Decisions

Colleges and universities have never had more data at their fingertips. Still, many higher education leadership teams still make major decisions on incomplete internal reporting or even gut instinct alone. Benchmarking offers a structured alternative. When done well, it gives higher ed leaders a reliable framework for understanding where their institution stands versus peer organizations…

UPCEA’s Corporate Member Blog Series #4 | From Data to Action: Helping Institutions Close the Gap Between Ambition and Infrastructure

The 2026 State of Continuing Education report makes one thing unmistakably clear: UPCEA member institutions know where they want to go. What they need is help getting there. The findings from this year’s study read less like a progress report and more like a stress test. Microcredential adoption has hit an all-time high (88%). Workforce…

Seeing Part of the Picture: What We Still Cannot See About Online Students

For more than a decade, higher education leaders have relied on IPEDS data to understand the growth of distance education. Since distance education reporting was added to IPEDS in 2012, the number of students enrolled exclusively in distance education courses has more than doubled. Today, more than 5.3 million students are enrolled exclusively in distance…

The Modern Online and Professional Continuing Education Leader: Roles, Pressures, and What High-Performing Units Do Differently

Online and professional continuing education plays a pivotal part in expanding educational access and shaping contemporary workforce development. These programs serve a critical function in our communities, yet they face considerable challenges. Today’s leaders must navigate complexity tied to virtual learning and employer partnerships, along with changes in what communities expect from online and professional…

What is a “Professional” Degree? Lawsuits and Legislators Push Back against Trump Admin | Policy Matters (June 2026)

Major Updates What is a “Professional” Degree? Lawsuits and Legislators Push Back against Trump Admin Determinations The definition of a “professional” degree has quietly become one of the most consequential terms in federal financial aid, and it lands squarely on the graduate and professional programs many continuing education units operate. Under the One Big Beautiful…