Our Purpose is to help institutions of higher education develop and sustain learning environments and programs suitable for adults.

The AHEA does this by:

• Providing a forum for professional educators to share resources and information about alternative degree programs on a national and international level.
• Stimulating practitioner research, thereby contributing to the integration of theory and practice, and to the improved quality of our efforts.
• Serving as a vehicle for cooperative consultation and collaboration among professionals in the field.
• Integrating the interests and concerns from a variety of areas within adult higher education including distance, international and liberal education.
• Promoting rights of adult students.
• Influencing institutional and public policies concerning the principles of quality practice applied to adult education.
• Promoting cultural diversity and multicultural perspectives, and maintaining that commitment through the incorporation of such perspectives into the policies, procedures, and practices of alternative degree programs for adults.