University Continuing Education: Shaping the Future

During the last three years, university systems in three Canadian provinces were the object of review, the vehicle in each case a Royal Commission. That these reviews were undertaken hints at a degree of anxiety in the mind of government and public, an attitude replacing the acceptance and support which characterized the previous decade. They suggest, moreover, the need for reassurance in the public mind of the efficiency and the effectiveness - of universities and of their relevance in a period characterized by basic shifts in society and thus of society's requirements. In general tone, they are remarkably similar. In a particular matter, they articulate an almost identical view: that higher education should be mademore accessible, more flexible, and its outreach in public service more substantial