The Continuing Education & Public Programs of The Graduate Center is a gathering place for people to meet, to think, to learn and to grow. The programs seek to deepen participants' critical thinking, help them gain new skills, open their minds and hearts, and encourage them to join in a partnership for learning and action. We strive to create partnerships for individuals from New York City and beyond.

Our programs are driven by the motivation to provide excellence in the experience of education. We strive to offer quality educational programming based on a philosophy of public service.

Continuing Education & Public Programs offer scheduled events throughout the year, and the programs cover a diverse and interesting range of topics specifically selected to meet the personal and professional needs and interests of the public audience in New York City and beyond.

We offer a wide range of educational formats to meet the goals of our program as well as the needs of our audience. These include on-going instruction, mini courses, workshops, conferences, hands-on experiences, cultural, artistic, and celebratory events and presentations.

We invite a diverse and talented group of individuals to join with us in our Learning Partnership. Together we work to create adult educational programming that extends the inspiring intellectual, artistic, and professional environment that characterizes The Graduate Center to the wider public.

Need

There exists a tremendous need in the New York metropolitan area and beyond for high quality and accessible adult education. The Graduate Center is in a wonderful position to offer unique continuing education opportunities that enable people to empower and develop themselves on many levels including enhancing their critical thinking, deepening their educational foundation, and strengthening their skills for careers and social involvement.

We are striving to build a pedagogical approach that actually creates a synergy where the total is greater than the sum of its parts. Our goal will always be to combine the best opportunities in life-long/continuing/popular education with the best of academic education.

A Need for an Educational Program that merges Theory and Action

We have developed programming that encourages the best of all educational approaches including theoretically bound, action-oriented, or skilled based. This is enhanced by our ability to utilize the best practitioners and thinkers from inside and outside The Graduate Center.

A Place of Access

We have shaped our program to reach a wide range of people. Our programs will be inviting because of our considerations for the audience's time commitments, an affordable fee structure, flexible program formats and unique and interesting program content. The wide variety of non-credit, professional certificate and credit programs we offer will provide the widest range of entry points for many people. Some of the programs are free to the public and we strive to ensure access to educational opportunities for all people regardless of financial resources. This approach of weaving together continuing education and academic public programs also creates a bridge and entry to formal higher education for people in the community.