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Everyone deserves education to thrive in an ever-changing world.

UW Continuum College provides innovative paths to learning that boost people’s career success and inspire more meaningful lives.

We provide high-quality University of Washington education that’s relevant for today’s world.

With a flexible approach, we deliver the right programs for the right people at the right time.

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INSPIRING STORIES

03 A New Way to College

04Fast Facts

06Public as a Philosophy

10Proven Impact

14Leading-Edge Student Experience

18Innovation Mindset

22Programs by the Numbers

24 Your Partner in Innovation

25Make a Gift

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As the educational outreach unit of the University of Washington, we’ve asked a lot of big questions lately about how best to serve new traditional, nontraditional students.

Finding the right answers has been an invigorating journey. We’ve enlivened our mission. We’ve boosted our innovative spirit. And we’ve arrived at a new name: UW Continuum College. This identity reflects the growing importance of why we do what we do.

Above all, we believe everyone deserves education to thrive in an ever-changing world. That’s why we’re here.

Throughout 2016, our efforts touched the lives of more than 50,000 people. In this report, it's our privilege to share some of the stories that inspired us all.

It’s our great honor to congratulate the determined students, from every walk of life, who enroll in our programs and go on to contribute to business and society, here in Seattle and around the world.

We’re also proud to celebrate our dedicated instructors, staff and campus partners who create vibrant, high quality education.

At UW Continuum College, we know preparing people to meet today’s most urgent needs requires a spectrum of learning paths. That’s why we’re agile and innovative as we break down barriers and boundlessly share the University’s knowledge and discoveries.

We proudly serve regional business partners and nearly every college on campus with our unparalleled expertise in managing self-sustaining programs at the UW. Part of our 105-year-old tradition is to return the benefits of the self-sustaining model to all who invest in the University of Washington — students, families, taxpayers, donors, businesses and an increasingly global community.

I’ll say it again, and I’ll say it often: We believe everyone deserves education to thrive in an ever-changing world. We’re investing big in this belief by endowing our first-ever noncredit certificate program scholarship fund.

Opportunity to learn shouldn’t be open only to those who can afford it. I hope you’ll join us to build this new, transformational financial support. You can help more people shape a better future with a UW education, no matter where they are in life and where they intend to go.

UW Continuum College is fortunate to work with so many pioneering partners on dynamic ideas and inspired actions to deliver the right learning for every person at the right time. On behalf of learners everywhere, I thank you for your collaborative spirit toward a boundless future.

Rovy F. Branon IIIVice Provost, University of WashingtonContinuum College

A New Way to College

Rovy F. Branon IIIVice Provost, University of WashingtonContinuum College

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students earned a certificate

2,927industry professionals served on certificate advisory boards

1,513was the average age of certificate program students

students ages 6–18 attended Summer Youth Programs and 10 need-based scholarships were awarded

1,335UW faculty supported UWin the High School classes across 101 high schools in Washington state

42guests attended 19 academic conferences

6,097

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* To determine the degree count, we followed the University’s institutional metadata rules and tracked ABBV-pathway-level-type. If the same degree had multiple pathways within the same reporting period, it was counted only once.

UW incoming freshman enrolled in Early Fall Start

818countries represented in English Language Programs

42F1 I-20’s issued by UW Continuum College

670

open online courses designed for Coursera, EdX and Canvas platforms

33new degrees launched

3degrees offered online

22*

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PUBLIC AS A PHILOSOPHY

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UW Continuum College empowers learners of all types

by offering access to UW education that fits their lives.

Our graduates contribute skills and expertise to the

community as they fill in-demand jobs at enterprises as

diverse as Boeing, Microsoft and the City of Seattle.

We welcomed more than 4,500 students to certificate

programs in 2015–2016.

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When employers look

at project managers

who have a certificate

from the University of

Washington, they know

they’ve been through

a rigorous program.

— Josh Bates

PUBLIC AS A PHILOSOPHY

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“When employers look at project managers who have a certificate from the University of Washington,” Bates says, “they know they’ve been through a rigorous program.”

Diamond says there are big benefits when a range of students — from MBAs to learners with no previous formal training — have access to the kind of professional education programs that UW Continuum College helps develop.

Alumni are extending the ethos of their learning to build career networks, and Diamond says UW-trained project managers are driving successful endeavors all around the Puget Sound region.

“We’re here to teach the why of it, the what of it and the how of it — all in a way that lets you be situationally nimble,” Diamond said. “It makes us ready to face the magic of Seattle, where everything’s always changing and we’re changing the world.”

Across industry, nonprofits, health care, startups and the public sector, knowledge-economy enterprises seek leaders in project management: professionals with a mix of hard science and soft skills in strategy, planning, communication and quality.

Standout candidates for these jobs are grads of UW Professional & Continuing Education’s Certificate in Project Management, brought to students by UW Continuum College.

“You come out of the program with a real sense of what it is to do this job,” says course instructor Jennifer Diamond, a principal consultant at Slalom Consulting.

The certificate, which enrolled 257 students in 2015–16, emphasizes relationships and the importance of communication on the job. Not only do certificate students learn from professionals in the field, they also gain insights from top industry leaders, thinkers and doers.

Josh Bates, a client services manager at Slalom, offers his expertise as a member of the project management certificate’s advisory board. He says it’s a priority for the board to ensure courses are relevant and meaningful.

A Destination for People Who Care

Josh BatesClient Services ManagerSlalom Consulting

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PROVEN IMPACT

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UW Continuum College serves a dynamic community

of busy, diverse people seeking knowledge to improve

their job skills and make a greater impact in the world.

As a self-sustaining unit, we support UW education

that would otherwise not be available — touching the

lives of more than 50,000 students each year.

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Ramey credits UW

Continuum College

for understanding

powerful new ways to

deliver education and

working closely with

campus partners to

make it happen.

PROVEN IMPACT

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It was 1983. Personal computers had just been introduced. And the tech industry urgently needed a workforce trained in design, computer documentation and usability testing.

Usability expert Judith Ramey was new to the UW faculty and knew that the time was right to launch short courses in technical communication. To do so, she partnered with continuing education experts at what is now UW Continuum College.

The short courses were a success, and over the next decades such collaborations multiplied.

Ramey said that when the “emergency of the web” drove up demand for new learning in technical communication, the partners launched part-time and evening master’s degrees for working professionals.

There was no state money to hire more instructors, so the program managers got creative. They designed the first master’s in technical communication to pay for itself with tuition and fees — not state funds.

The innovative funding model — unbound from state rules — raised additional non-state dollars for department use, allowing instructors to move fast to shape the curriculum for the changing industry.

The faculty, Ramey said, had “more authority, more power over our own future — our own direction — than we perhaps had before.”

Ramey, now an emeritus professor of the UW Department of Human Centered Design & Engineering (HCDE), recalled that the bright idea of a self-sustaining unit quickly replicated on campus. Today, financial self-sufficiency is a hallmark of UW Continuum College-supported programs. HCDE has since partnered with UW Continuum College on a series of professional certificates, including the Certificate in User-Centered Design offered in 2015–16.

UW Continuum College also helped create the innovative Master of Human-Computer Interaction + Design — a 2016 collaboration among HCDE and the Department of Computer Science & Engineering, the Division of Design in the School of Art + Art History + Design, and the Information School.

Ramey credits UW Continuum College for understanding powerful ways to deliver education and working closely with partners to make it happen.

“Within UW Continuum College, they have people who specialized in various disciplines,” Ramey said. “They can offer that resource of drawing on people who have knowledge of what works.”

Reinventing Education

Judith RameyProfessor Emeritus, Human Centered Design & EngineeringUniversity of Washington

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LEADING-EDGE STUDENT EXPERIENCE

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UW Continuum College creates an experience for every

new traditional, nontraditional student — whether pursuing

a higher level of learning or simply forever curious. We lead

the way in understanding the evolving needs of those

who don’t fit the mold of an on-campus, full-time day

student, and we advance opportunities to benefit learners

throughout life.

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LEADING-EDGE STUDENT EXPERIENCE

Steiger said earning

his certificate in 2016

gave him back his

confidence — and a

new dream.

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Brendan Steiger began his freshman year at the UW with plans for a career in aerospace engineering. And then, in an instant, everything changed.

A 70-mile-per-hour car crash left Steiger with a traumatic brain injury and severe damage to his short-term memory. Struggling to complete his multivariable calculus exams, Steiger chose to leave his engineering studies.

Following a year of intensive speech therapy to rebuild his memory, Steiger was ready to return to the UW with a new major; he earned his bachelor’s degree in political science. As he worked in sales and finance after graduating, he discovered a knack for understanding business problems and felt ready to pursue a new career.

His first step was to enroll in UW Professional & Continuing Education’s Certificate in Business Intelligence: Techniques for Decision Making, brought to students by UW Continuum College. He became skilled at using data-analytics software applications and statistical programming languages, and he’s since advanced his career as an analyst for a cruise line.

Steiger said earning his certificate in 2016 gave him back his confidence — and a new dream: “I want to go back for a master’s, and data science is something I’m really considering,” Steiger said. “I’m really motivated to move to the next level.”

Brendan SteigerAlumnus, Certificate in Business Intelligence

Despite the Odds

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INNOVATION MINDSET

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UW Continuum College wants to be the engine that

expands the University’s capacity to meet the demands of

21st-century education. We’re not only looking ahead to

where things are going — we drive learning innovations

through research, experimentation and invention.

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UW Continuum College

provides a portfolio

of services you can’t

get elsewhere.

— Bill Howe

INNOVATION MINDSET

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What do you get when you bring together economists, systems biologists, engineers, library scientists and experts in education, anthropology and philosophy?

The answer is some of the UW’s most innovative, interdisciplinary programs  — and UW Continuum College experts to navigate the inevitable complexities.

A prime example debuted in 2016: the master’s in data science, advanced by the eScience Institute.

“We’re hoping the master’s degree will build a reputation for producing the most technically rigorous, most advanced, most successful students in data science,” said Bill Howe, the eScience Institute’s associate director.

The field of data science relies on knowledge, discovery and collaboration across disciplines such as computer science, engineering and statistics. To create the master’s degree, Howe needed to solve another puzzle: how to bring together faculty from a record number (six!) of the top-ranked departments to form a cohesive entity.

The solution: UW Continuum College.

Instead of divvying up administrative work between departments, UW Continuum College offered its services to create the program’s infrastructure.

The professional master’s degree also gets a big boost from UW Continuum College’s unique knowledge of working adults who are looking for continuing education.

“UW Continuum College provides a portfolio of services you can’t get elsewhere,” Howe said.

The master’s in data science builds on 30 years of powerful collaborations between UW Continuum College and partnering units, including the UW Information School. The iSchool, as it’s known, graduates in-demand experts who access, extract, correct, combine and organize information to harness their full potential.

UW Continuum College helped launch the iSchool’s master’s in library and information science (MLIS) — and two options for the master’s degree in information management (MSIM). In 2016, more than 900 people applied for the MSIM’s 90 available spots.

Harry Bruce, dean of the iSchool, credits UW Continuum College for the success of both programs: “We wouldn’t have been able to move forward with launching those programs without that partnership.”

Bill HoweAssociate Director eScience Institute

Big Ideas for Big Data

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* To determine the degree count, we followed the University’s institutional metadata rules and tracked ABBV-pathway-level-type. If the same degree had multiple pathways within the same reporting period, it was counted only once.

Total number of fee-based degrees*

104Credit certificate programs

39Noncredit certificate programs

100

IELP programs & courses offered

356Summer Youth courses offered

42UW in the High School courses offered

282

Courses offered through the Summer Quarter program

2,016Courses offered through Osher

63

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SUMMER 2015–SPRING 2016 SUMMER 2014–SPRING 2015

ENROLLMENTS STUDENTS SERVED

ENROLLMENTS STUDENTS SERVED

Degrees 34,956 5,065 31,975 4,774

Early Fall Start 818 818 684 684

Certificate Programs 11,943 4,810 12,152 4,855

International & English Language Programs

5,395 1,651 6,995 1,932

Summer Youth Programs 1,546 1,335 1,424 1,205

UW in the High School 5,135 4,222 4,309 3,498

Contract 835 463 775 489

Osher 1,410 1,463 1,294 1,340

Conferences 6,097 6,097 6,915 6,915

Standalone Courses 2,708 2,184 2,463 2,038

Summer Quarter 30,790 13,232 30,390 12,989

Community (Shared) Access Courses

3,613 1,553 3,539 1,469

Open Online Courses— Free— Paid

525,70728,705

n/a12,640

387,734n/a

n/an/a

TOTAL PAID 133,951 55,533 102,915 42,188

ENROLLMENT TOTALS & STUDENTS SERVED

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On campus and across the region, Continuum College is

your UW partner to bring learning ideas to life. Our experts

bring 105 years of proven success to every partnership,

from idea to launch — and beyond. We’re here for you

when it’s time to start something new.

800-506-1325 / continuum.uw.edu/partner-with-us

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Make a Gift

Everyone deserves the chance to learn and grow.

Now more than ever, continual learning is critical

for professional success. Your tax-deductible

gift to the UWPCE Certificate Scholarship program

can help more people experience life-changing

learning for a boundless future.

Learn more at continuum.uw.edu/support-us.

University of WashingtonContinuum CollegeBox 359480Seattle, WA 98195-9480

CONTINUUM.UW.EDU