Sharing University Intellectual Capital: The Role of Continuing Education

New England Journal of Higher Education, The, Winter 2005 by O'Neill, Hugh

New England's research universities are widely recognized as major contributors to the region's economy. In many of the communities in which they are located, they rank among the largest employers. They purchase goods and services from New England companies, and are often among the leading procurers of construction activity. Each year, they bring billions of dollars in federal research funding into the region.

Research universities are not only significant enterprises in their own right-they are also part of the infrastructure that supports other sectors of New England's knowledge-based economy. They are an important source of the new knowledge that drives the region's growth. At both the undergraduate and graduate levels, they play a central role in meeting the region's near-insatiable demand for people with higherlevel skills. Moreover, many of New England's leading universities have over the past decade become much more effective at "technology transfer," facilitating the translation of academic research into new businesses and new jobs.

There is, however, one aspect of the research universities' role in the regional economy that has not been as widely recognized: some of New England's leading research universities are also leading providers of continuing education for working adults. Harvard University's Extension School, for example, has been characterized as "Harvard's best-kept secret." The Extension School offers associate and bachelor's degrees. It also offers post-baccalaureate certificate and master's degree programs in a variety of career-oriented fields, including computer science, e-commerce, publishing and communications, museum management, environmental management and teaching mathematics. In addition to enrolling in degree or certificate programs, students may choose to take just one or a few courses-either for career purposes or simply for personal enrichment. In the spring of 2002, 8,431 individuals took courses at the Extension School, averaging about 1.7 course enrollments each. If the Extension School were a freestanding community college, it would be one of the largest in eastern Massachusetts.

The Extension School's students are very different from those who attend Harvard College or Harvard's graduate and professional schools. Whereas nearly 90 percent of all Harvard undergraduate and graduate students come from outside the Boston metropolitan area, nearly 90 percent of Extension School students live in the five-county metropolitan Boston area. Their median age is 30, and about 60 percent are women.

Harvard is not alone. Boston University's Metropolitan College, for example, is also a leading provider of continuing and career education in the Boston area. It also offers undergraduate, graduate and certificate programs-including a degree-completion program for working adults who had once started college, but never finished. Metropolitan College offers courses at four locations in the Boston area-and also provides specialized programs for corporate clients.

In some ways, focusing on continuing and career education makes good business sense for research universities. It is the fastest-growing segment of the higher education market. Continuing education programs can also-at least for some institutions-provide a way to spread fixed costs over a broader revenue base.

More importantly, research universities' involvement in the market for career and continuing education can be of great value to the communities in which these institutions are located. Research universities often bring to this market a variety of resources that other providers may not be able to match: access to libraries, laboratories and a wide array of on-line resources; the ability to link career-oriented courses to cutting-edge research in fields like biotechnology and computer science; opportunities to transition from undergraduate to graduate-level programs; and a different set of connections into the job market. University continuing ed programs are not a substitute for high-quality community colleges, but they can be an extremely valuable addition to the services that community colleges provide.

For elected officials and other local leaders who confront the challenge of ensuring that the continued growth of major universities benefits their communities, the record of Harvard, BU and other institutions in this field may suggest an area of real opportunity. Along with commitments to local hiring, involvement in efforts to improve local schools, support for development of affordable housing and other "community benefit" requests, local leaders should look to career and continuing education as an area in which their constituents can benefit from the presence of a major university.

Local officials could, for example, ask a university to develop new associate-level or post-baccalaureate certificate programs specifically targeted at helping local residents prepare for (or advance in) careers in fast-growing local industries. Or they could ask that the university provide management training programs for local small business owners.