ABSTRACT
This chapter places the debate in the context of accurate information regarding the organisation of programmes of graduate adult education within universities and the curricula they adopt or develop. In 1964 the Commission of Professors of Adult Education issued its first concerted attempt to define and delineate what appropriately comprised the field of adult education as it related to graduate study. In reviewing the characteristics of graduate programmes in adult education, and the literature surrounding the development of this field as an area of academic study, it is apparent that there is a strong divergence of opinion as to how the doctorate in adult education should be conceived in terms of its purpose and functions. Definitively accurate information on the number and organisation of graduate programmes is notoriously difficult to obtain. The size of graduate programs varies considerably from institution to institution.
