Politics, Policy, and Socio-economic Impact on Continuing Higher Ed.

Serving as corroborator and catalyst, linking needs to stakeholders and programs, yet doing so within their traditional setting, is the crucial “story” of continuing higher education! Hence inquiries related to the reevaluation of the historical mission and values of continuing higher education in the changing political-economic climate of higher education are necessary. The purpose of this study was to examine continuing education''s strategic responses to the political-economic context of higher education. The results of this study show among others that: a) Continuing education is an academic capital advantage, providing greater returns to higher education than the investment made in supporting its strategic position. b) Entrepreneurialism, as a strategy within continuing education, is limited in classical applicability and scope relative to higher education''s traditional cultural-context.c). Continuing education units are disenfranchised with respect to shared governance. These governance constraints are meant to “protect” the parent institutions'' cultural values, and branding.