The clarification of the administrative functions of the dean of continuing education in a university or college

The purpose for conducting this study was to clarify the perceptions of what the administrative functions of the dean of continuing education should be in universities and colleges. The population for this study consisted of the deans of continuing education, the deans\u27 immediate superiors, and the deans\u27 subordinates in land grant institutions with 1986/87 membership in the National Association of State Universities and Land Grant Colleges (NASULGC). Of 69 such institutions, five were used to pilot test the instrument. The 64 remaining were surveyed, and 33 of these returned usable data. The research tool was a survey questionnaire with Likert-type questions. A review of literature was conducted to establish some relevant information relating to the administrative functions of the dean of continuing education. Four functions were identified: (1) Attraction and Retention of Participants (2) Acquisition and Allocation of Resources (3) Staff Selection and Development (4) Planning and Coordination-Leadership. Analysis of variance tests were used to analyze the data and.05 level was established as the critical point for significance. The findings indicate the following: (1) All the administrative functions identified were highly valued by each of the groups. (2) The deans\u27 superiors believed that the four functions are appropriate to the office of the dean more strongly than did either the deans or their subordinates. (3) The deans gave highest priority to Staff Selection and Development, while the deans\u27 superiors and subordinates gave higher priority to Acquisition and Allocation of Resources. (4) There are more similarities than differences among the three groups with regard to the appropriateness of the functions to the office of the dean. Two recommendations were made. Future research in this area should focus on a wider range of institutions, i.e., those with National University Continuing Education Association (NUCEA) membership. A similar study should be done with the Delphi technique to gauge how opinions of those investigated change over time