Corporate universities: a viewpoint on the challenges and best practices

With a trend of significant growth and continued corporate enthusiasm, corporate universities have reached a high level of acceptance and face a new set of challenges. Factors contributing to growth include partnering with universities to strengthen delivery advantage, centralizing resources, creating strategic alignment of education with business goals, and on overall renewed appreciation for education in the workplace. Themes guiding universities into the year 2000 are more awareness of the need to balance client responsiveness with a longer‐term view of the business, and tighter integration of education with the corporate goals. Challenges facing the leading‐edge institutions and their responses are examined. Best practices are reported in the areas of curriculum/delivery, participant/ student challenges, faculty/trainer issues, and measuring program effectiveness.