topic Academia

Continuing education at institutions of higher education

Besides teaching and research, continuing education is defined as a third pillar at institutions of higher education. Institutions of higher education thus have the possibility to develop demand-oriented continuing education programmes in the area of conflicting interest between practical needs for continuing education and scientific orientation, and to place them on the continuing education market.

Continuing education is an area which is open to further development by institutions of higher education: For academics, the process of qualification does not end once they have earned a doctoral degree, but academic courses for continuing education are rather rare at institutions of higher education. The knowledge of higher education teachers is also interesting for specialist staff, but there are relatively few examples of such qualification programmes at institutions of higher education. Higher education institutions are estimated to account currently for about five percent of the continuing education market.

Continuing education offered by universities is to prepare learners for new and rising demands on the job. Therefore, it is becoming increasingly important for safeguarding individual employability, but also for the overall economic development.

Important aspects like transparency of programmes, modularization, certification and accreditation of academic continuing education must be improved, as must cooperation between institutions of higher education and with the market.

The BMBF supports institutions of higher education with the framework of the BLK programme Collaborative projects "Continuing Education Offered by Universities" which was launched in early 2004. The programme aims at structuring continuing education programmes as well as at the development of criteria for modularization, accreditation and certification of academic continuing education programmes. Collaborations and collaborative projects are to be established across universities to increase the competitiveness of German institutions of higher education on the continuing education market.