Higher Education's Changing Contours: The Policy Implications of an Emerging System

American higher education is remarkably adaptive. A "system" only in the broadest sense of the term, it has been flexible enough to absorb and adapt to broad changes that, at the time, were outside the traditional purview of mainstream colleges and universities—for example, the land grant movement, the creation of community colleges, the passage of the GI Bill, and the need to serve increasing numbers of adult students. On the threshold of the twenty-first century, American higher education faces yet another new movement, one that has been described variously as "part-time," "postbaccalaureate," or "non-degree" education. But for public policy purposes, these characterizations are too narrow; the emerging, diverse aggregation of educational activities and interests beyond the boundaries of traditional higher education are too broad to be so described. "System of users" seems more appropriate—at least for preliminary policy analysis.