President's Message

Welcome to our website!

The Canadian Association for University Continuing Education (CAUCE)

– providing a forum for sharing, research, and development since 1954.

I’d like to take this opportunity to welcome you to the Canadian Association for University Continuing Education (CAUCE). As an association we bring a rich history, representing a diverse cross-section of institutions, interests, experiences, skill sets and priorities. These priorities in turn reflect our geography, our diverse missions and mandates and our varied institutional contexts. Despite these differences we face common challenges: Who are the learners of tomorrow? Where are the institutional models that make financial as well as pedagogical sense? Where does CE fit into our universities’ strategic plans? Or, what does sustainability look like from a CE perspective? These are questions that I hope your association, our partners, and our individual members can help you answer.

In a world facing political reordering, environmental challenges, economic turmoil and massive technological changes, higher education finds itself in what many have referred to as “a perfect storm”.  Meteorologists would define a perfect storm as the simultaneous occurrence of weather events which, taken individually, would be far less powerful than the storm resulting from their chance combination. The perfect storm in higher education is a function of the confluence of factors of globalization, technology, changing demographics, financial challenge, blurring boundaries, heightened social responsibility and the ongoing balance between access and quality. Individually, these factors can provide daunting challenges. Collectively, some might suggest they are insurmountable.  Nonetheless, continuing education can play a role in combating these challenges.

Continuing education units provide a portal into the university for a large number of adult and non-traditional learners. They also provide one conduit through which the vast resources of the university can be extended to the community. Moreover, continuing education units are interdisciplinary, with greater flexibility to explore different modes of delivery, different credentials, different financial models and different markets. While often saddled with a need to demonstrate cost neutrality to the institution, continuing education units can often pursue more flexible approaches to learning than traditional faculties are able to justify.

For continuing education units to effectively contribute to the challenges your institutions are facing, you need the tools to support your units and your staff in the important work that you do. I trust that as we at CAUCE understand you, our members, more clearly, we are able to enhance the value of the services you receive as members. So when you ask for professional development, tools to assist you with your advocacy or a better way to interact with your colleagues across the country, we are able to provide the vehicles to make these happen.

The Roman philosopher Seneca said, “Every new beginning comes from some other beginnings end”. In that spirit, I’d like to acknowledge the many beginnings that have preceded me. It is really a testament to these beginnings that our Association continues to move forward today.  In more recent years the beginnings of Marilynn Booth brought us a focus on presenting a public face to CAUCE through the many stories that those of us in continuing education can tell (Turning Up the Volume on Canada’s Learning Continuum: Learner Success Stories from University Continuing Education Providers across the Country). Andy Cochrane emphasized the value of partnerships in advancing our association and this past year Tracey Taylor-O’Reilly has helped us to get a better handle on our institutional priorities while building on our relationships with many of our sister associations.

Clearly the directions set by previous presidents’ need to be continued. Most recently, our efforts to advance a CE101 program, to establish vehicles for communicating through social media channels and the very important focus on building our relationships with CNIE, ACHE and UPCEA must and will continue. We will also reap the benefits of the efforts of Walter Archer, our Journal Editor, and his team at the University of Alberta, in moving our journal, the Canadian Journal of University Continuing Education to an online format. The journal is now available at http://ejournals.library.ualberta.ca/index.php/cjuce/rcépu.

The directions set by my predecessors, coupled with the data you have provided to us in last year’s survey highlight the importance of advocacy to this association.  To be strong advocates – whether it is within our institutions, our provinces, nationally or internationally - requires solid data. We have a wonderful resource to tell the qualitative picture in Turning Up the Volume. Our efforts this year have proven that is sometimes a difficult challenge to develop comparable quantitative data – we use different terms and a multitude of methods to measure our impact. I believe, however, that it can be done and that will certainly be a focus in the upcoming year.

CAUCE is positioned to build on its history. With a strong administrative structure supported by the Secretariat at the University of Saskatchewan, an active committee system that draws membership from institutions across the country and a dedicated Executive, CAUCE will seek to provide the supports that our members need to respond to the many challenges in our environment. I look forward to working with our members over the next year and would encourage you to contact me with any questions or feedback.

Regards,

Maureen MacDonald
President (2010-11)

Maureen MacDonald, Ph.D.
Dean
Division of Continuing Studies
University of Victoria
Tel: 250-721-8456
Fax: 250-472-4358
Email: uvcsdean@uvic.ca