Corporate Universities and Adult Education: Implications for Theory and Practice

The purpose of this paper is to explore characteristics of corporate universities (CUs) from the adult education (AdEd) perspective in order to identify implications for AdEd theory and practice. Through an integrative literature review of CUs, the differences among CUs, human resource development centers, and traditional universities are investigated. Considering the AdEd characteristics of CUs, such as individuals’ learning and qualifications/certifications of higher education, the partnership/collaboration model of CU is suggested in terms of workplace learning, which is the overlapping field of HRD and AdEd. Ultimately, to promote participatory AdEd in the workplace, nations should play crucial roles in providing administrative and financial support to CUs