Vice-Dean Nora Lewis Comments on Need for Adult Education

Some Ivies have harnessed such demand in their own communities: Harvard and Columbia both operate schools of continuing education. The general post-baccalaureate program alone hosted by the University of Pennsylvania’s undergraduate college currently has about 1,500 enrolled students, said Vice Dean of Continuing Education Nora Lewis.

“They’re all types of people taking different courses for different types of reasons,” she said, adding that students in Penn’s continuing education courses range in age from 20 to 80.

Penn’s College of Liberal and Professional Studies offers degree and non-degree programs at the undergraduate, graduate and post-baccalaureate levels. Among the roughly 450 students in Penn’s B.A. degree program for continuing students, Lewis said, many completed associate’s degrees at community college and then decided to pursue a bachelor’s degree elsewhere. There are also many whose professions do not allow them to attend school full time, she added, including ballet dancers and professional ice skaters.

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