ABSTRACT
This chapter presents information about a portion of the capital of higher education in Canada and the United States - the professors of adult education. The soaring enrolments and proliferation of new subjects and services of the 1950s created serious problems in higher education. Despite the studies of the 1960s and 1970s, the National Education Association, in a recent study of higher education, found the information on faculty work loads and opinions to be ‘meagre, sporadic, and somewhat dated’. Professors of adult education appear to follow the common route: 55.9% reported that first thoughts of teaching adult education came during graduate study and 27.1% reported that first thoughts came only after receiving the highest degree. The adult education professoriat is heavily populated with men who are middle-aged and older and, if the group is similar to the professoriat in general, the median age is increasing.
