November 21, 2008

Dean Judy Ashcroft recently presented comments at the University Continuing Education Association (UCEA)‘s Executive Assembly entitled “Beyond Carnegie–Useful Criteria for Comparing and Classifying University Professional and Continuing Education Organizations”. The assembly took place on September 11, 2008, at the University of Chicago.

The UCEA Executive Assembly is designed for deans of continuing education (CE) and extension to exchange ideas on current topics in a collegial setting. Also on the panel with Dean Ashcroft were Dean James Pappas of the University of Oklahoma and Dean Robert Wiltenburg of Washington University, the current president of UCEA.

The lively discussion was based on a draft paper by Dean Gary Matkin of the University of California- Irvine, who pointed out that continuing educators are frequently engaged in assessments of their organizations and operating units using “benchmarking” with “peer” institutions. However, no clear set of criteria exists to determine “peer institutions” among CE providers.

The assembly agreed that the CE community would benefit from an objective, clearly-defined, externally-determined method of identifying institutions of similar characteristics. Starting with suggestions from the panel and incorporating ideas from the assembly participants, a list of key factors was generated. This long list was evidence of the broad spectrum of programs these deans preside over and explained why benchmarking against peers is so difficult .