About UCEA (2007-2008)

Strategic Vision Statement

Background

UCEA's Board of Directors under the leadership of President Barbara Scott and President-Elect Rich Novak, is pursuing a strategic visioning process this year. The purpose of this effort is to scan the continuing higher education environment and identify concrete steps that UCEA might take in the coming twelve to eighteen months to better serve its members. As distinct from a full strategic planning effort, this strategic visioning process is a way to quickly assess the environment in which college and university continuing education organizations function and the concomitant implications for UCEA. What follows is a summary of the results of the visioning discussions to which the Board, Commissions, and other constituent groups have contributed.

The Context for Continuing Higher Education in 2006

Knowledge-Based Economy

In today's knowledge-based economy, continuous learning is not an option but a necessity for most individuals in the work force. The rapid pace of knowledge development and new job creation requires people to continually update their skills and knowledge to remain employable. These imperatives have prompted many college and university continuing education organizations to broaden their focus during the last decade from enrichment programs to professional and degree credentials. CE organizations have responded to a growing demand for career-related curricula with programs delivered at times and in places convenient to working adults. The rise of E-learning during the past decade has attracted new providers and brought added competition for continuing education organizations. Still, E-learning has enabled continuing education organizations to broaden access to their offerings and overall, increased continuing education's importance to regional economic development.

An Innovation Center for the University

Meanwhile constrained higher education budgets, escalating college tuition, and profound demographic shifts have combined to focus attention on the capacity of C.E. organizations to address changing educational needs effectively and agilely, while also contributing funds to the institution. Colleges and universities are being called upon to serve an ever more diverse and demanding learner population. Affordability concerns mean that many students at both the undergraduate and postbaccalaureate levels are combining work and study. Yet institutions' traditional curricula, calendars, and services tend to be unsuitable for most working adults. Recognizing this disconnect, continuing education organizations have adapted their resources to respond to this market shift by creating cutting-edge university curricula designed specifically with the needs of individuals trying to compete in a rapidly changing work environment in mind. Providing adult learners access to higher education to prepare for participation in society remains a core continuing education value. And as the enrollments of mature and part-time students in universities continue to climb, many institutions have come to realize that their continuing education organization can be an important innovation center. Often, the C.E. organization is out ahead of the rest of the institution when it comes to development of cross-disciplinary professional curricula, new instructional formats, E-learning, and entrepreneurial partnerships.

Globalization and Changing Demographics

Global competition for talent has brought additional challenges for employers and made it even more urgent for the United States to cultivate and harness the creative abilities of its own people. Yet the educational attainment of younger U.S. workers is lower than the country's older workers. Moreover the educational attainment levels of young Americans have tumbled relative to those of counterparts in other developed countries. According to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), the United States now ranks seventh in the percentage of its citizens who enter postsecondary education and complete a bachelor degree or postgraduate program. What's more, there is a growing class divide in the United States. Many qualified young Americans from low-income families choose to forego college rather than incur debt. Given that the competition for talent is increasingly worldwide, the United States confronts the possibility that there will not be enough college-educated workers to succeed the baby boomers coming up on retirement. Failure to address the education gap threatens the country's capacity to compete globally. Continuing education organizations can be part of the solution. They provide alternative pathways to higher education and retraining opportunities that prepare people for knowledge-based occupations. And it is these occupations which generate the most growth and employment gains.

Possible Implications for UCEA in 2007-2008

Building upon this broad vision of continuing higher education's immediate external environment, and taking into account the Association's strategic goals, the UCEA Board of Directors recognizes that there are emerging needs of the profession that may warrant the adjustment of priorities and resources. The following are proposed action plans for accomplishing specific objectives that align with UCEA's strategic goals.

Proposed Action Plans for Review

Learning

There is a need for a fresh assessment of the Association's learning activities in light of the challenges before college and university continuing education organizations and the changing skill requirements of professionals in the field. UCEA is committed to creating a learning program that reaches all members regardless of their professional background, institution or location. To this end, UCEA proposes to make E-learning an ever more significant component of its educational delivery system, complementing the Association's face-to-face programs. In early 2007, UCEA will offer live, interactive presentations of two professional development Modules via video streaming. Assuming success, it will look to making additional Modules available in this format. UCEA foresees leveraging the teaching capacities of its members by promoting the development of peer-learning opportunities during the year in all Regions. Also, given the expanding demand for continuing education leadership talent and the impending retirement of many of the field's senior leaders, strengthening and diversifying the leadership pipeline must remain a priority of the Association. In this regard, UCEA plans to use its Summer Institute and Executive Leadership Academy as key resources for preparing the next generation of continuing higher education leaders from North America.

Research

A primary function of UCEA regards the development of data and specific information about the field, using both primary and secondary research strategies. Beginning in autumn 2006, UCEA will conduct both its Management and Marketing Surveys annually and online, and make results available to members on its web site in an interactive format. Further, UCEA will expand and refine its environmental scanning processes, including the annual ranking of key issues in the continuing education field by member institution representatives, and the annual polling of UCEA Commissioners.

Identification of key environmental trends and issues of relevance to continuing education organizations will remain a core component of the Association's research endeavors. UCEA will continue to disseminate its analyses to members through the Association's publications, presentations, and web resources.

UCEA relies on grant funding for its primary research activities. Currently, the Association's major research project regards a national study of degree completion programs, supported with funding from the Lumina Foundation. Preliminary findings from that research will be available in the first half of 2007. Meanwhile, the Association will continue to pursue research partnership opportunities with private sector entities and counterpart international organizations that are perceived to advance the interests of the general UCEA membership.

Advocacy

The Association pursues its advocacy role primarily through education. It provides its data and analyses to policymakers and the national media on an ongoing basis in an effort to raise public awareness of continuing education's contributions to individuals, the economy, and society. Over the years UCEA's Lifelong Learning Trends publication has served to establish the Association as the national resource for data about college and university continuing education. UCEA has asked the Association's Marketing Advisory Committee to develop a national marketing plan for Trends that will launch in October, as well as a plan for regularly disseminating information about key continuing education issues to select media and the trade press. In addition, as of autumn 2006, UCEA will introduce a special page on its web site dedicated to news about pending legislation and regulations of relevance to continuing higher education organizations.

The federal Commission charged with developing a blueprint for higher education in the 21st century has declared that American prosperity depends on access to affordable education over the lifespan. That said, it is anticipated that the Commission's final report (due to be released in September 2006) will not detail a national strategy for lifelong learning but merely suggest components of a desirable strategy. UCEA plans to engage members concerned with public policy, and also draw on the talents of marketing and research leaders in the Association to assist it with the crafting of UCEA's response to possible legislative and regulatory proposals advanced by the Spellings Commission.

UCEA recognizes that there are likely to be other organizations concerned with some of the same policy issues. The Association will pursue collaborations with other organizations when it is judged that the alliance will advance common goals and be advantageous to the UCEA membership.

Community

The Association provides a place where U.S. and international continuing higher education professionals can share knowledge, collaborate, form relationships, and develop communities. UCEA wants to further strengthen member connections by promoting development of a broad online grassroots collaborative Forum. It is envisioned that the Forum also will help advance UCEA's learning, research and advocacy activities. The Forum will be a location where members can share their expertise and access relevant content that they cannot get elsewhere, including short segments from seminar and conference content, audio podcasts, and threaded conversations on topical subjects. UCEA plans to use its enhanced web site to enlist Community of Practice and Commission members in the development of best practices for major functional areas and discussion of important topics such as the models, design, and economics of new E-learning environments. In autumn 2006, UCEA will release a new edition of its biennial publication for marketing professionals, Steal these Ideas Please. The publication is derived from the submissions of UCEA members and suggests an approach that might be usefully adopted by Association CoPs in other functional areas.

With the globalization of the higher education market, participation by international educators at UCEA meetings has increased, as has the demand by U.S. continuing educators for more opportunities for regularized conversations with their counterparts in other countries. UCEA has established a number of exchange agreements with university continuing education associations in other countries. One result is the first UCEA-Chinese Continuing Education Association Forum which will take place in November 2006, with the support of the University of Massachusetts at Boston. Also, the Association's Board of Directors has approved the establishment of a fourth UCEA Commission on International Education.

Together, the institutions involved in UCEA constitute an extraordinarily rich bank of creative resources. An important role of UCEA involves fostering inter-university collaborations for the sharing of learning content, nationally and internationally. Moreover the Association is committed to using technology to promote the exchange of perspectives among educators in different countries and to improving higher education access and quality in our knowledge-driven, global society.

Strategic Goals

Goal: To provide learning to continuing educators over the career span
Goal: To gather data, undertake research, and disseminate analyses and information
Goal: To be an advocate for government policies, laws, and regulations that advance and enhance continuing higher education opportunities
Goal: To support professional networks, promote diversity, and foster the exchange of resources