Governance of university continuing education in Germany. A scoping review of research in a game-changing area

The governance of academic continuing education is an area of research
that has received little attention to date. On the one hand, this may be related to the
fact that it plays a minor role as a “third mission” area at universities. On the other
hand, governance mechanisms in higher education are necessarily closely linked to
its political, financial, and contextual characteristics, which require differentiation
from educational governance more broadly. Based on a scoping review, the existing
research on the governance of university-based continuing education in the German
higher education system has been systematically prepared using a multi-level model.
This shows a comprehensive view across all levels, which makes use of broad
theoretical references and is qualitatively oriented in terms of research methodology.