Editor’s note: This article is adapted from a conversation with Carolyn MacLaren on the Illumination Podcast. To hear the full discussion, listen to the episode here.
Graduation marks a significant achievement, but it should also leave the door open for what comes next. As people change careers, update their skills and pursue new interests, universities have an opportunity to become trusted educational partners throughout their lives.
Delivering on that opportunity requires changes across the institution. Learners need clear routes back into education, guidance through transitions and confidence that their previous learning will count. Continuing education can help institutions build those relationships, provided it has a central place in university strategy.
What higher education can learn from banks
Banks offer a useful model for maintaining relationships over time. A person might open a student account, return for a mortgage and later seek retirement advice. The relationship develops as their circumstances change, with services connected to different stages of life.
Universities could apply that same attention to learners’ changing needs. Someone completing a certificate today might need support with a career transition several years later. An institution that maintains the relationship can help that person identify a relevant next step, even when they are not currently enrolled.
That continuity also matters within the institution. Learners often have to explain their circumstances repeatedly as they move between admissions, advising and financial services. Connecting those interactions would allow staff to provide more informed guidance and reduce the burden on students to navigate separate offices.
Designing for the return
Becoming a lifelong learning partner means designing educational pathways that people can leave and reenter as their lives evolve. A learner may be ready for a short credential now and a longer program later. Institutions should make those connections explicit, including whether a course can contribute to a larger credential and what further study would require.
Scheduling and student services need similar attention. Working adults cannot always reorganize their lives around conventional academic terms or office hours. Flexible delivery and accessible advising can make returning to education more manageable.
Recognizing prior learning is another essential part of that experience. Lengthy evidence requirements and unclear assessment processes can discourage learners from pursuing recognition for knowledge they already have. Institutions can preserve academic rigour while making expectations clearer and the process easier to navigate.
Even website language can create an unnecessary obstacle. A student searching for information about dropping a course may struggle to find a policy labelled course withdrawal. Using familiar language helps people act on their goals without first having to learn institutional terminology.
Bringing continuing education to the centre
Continuing education already has experience supporting learners whose needs do not fit conventional university structures. Flexible admissions and career-focused programming can create an entry point for people who might otherwise assume university is not for them.
Those relationships have value across the institution. A learner who successfully completes a continuing education program has demonstrated their ability to learn and established a connection with the university. With guidance and appropriate pathways, that person may return for a diploma, degree or another professional program.
The divide between credit and noncredit education can make that progression difficult. Separate records, approval processes and academic rules may prevent learners from building on their achievements in ways they expected. Addressing those barriers requires collaboration between continuing education and academic faculties, supported by institutional policies that make progression possible where appropriate.
Continuing education therefore needs a voice in decisions about learner pathways and institutional strategy. Its experience can help shape how the entire university supports people across different stages of education and work.
Making the relationship a shared responsibility
A lasting learner relationship needs coordinated responsibility. When departments focus primarily on their own enrolment targets and budgets, opportunities to connect programs and support returning students can be overlooked. Advising, academic faculties, continuing education and alumni teams need a shared approach to maintaining that connection.
Progress will be visible in practical ways. Returning learners will understand their options, know whom to contact and receive clear information about costs and credential pathways. They will encounter an institution prepared to help them build on their experience and take their next step. That is how a university becomes a place learners can keep coming back to.