Cornell SCE’s Mission

Cornell University’s School of Continuing Education (Cornell SCE)
"… any person … any study."

The School of Continuing Education serves as Cornell’s gateway to a lifetime of learning, providing innovative, flexible, and accessible educational opportunities that help students of all backgrounds transform their lives, advance their careers, and positively impact communities around the world.

Dating back to 1876, Cornell SCE offers learning options including:

Our students include matriculated Cornell students, as well as visiting precollege, undergraduate, and graduate students from around the world; Cornell faculty, staff, and alumni; area residents; working adults and community college graduates; military service members and veterans; incarcerated individuals; students in Indigenous communities; farmworkers, and others with diverse educational backgrounds and paths to higher education.

Cornell SCE’s Vision

Our vision is to be a leading provider of Ivy League education for students of all backgrounds, recognized for our commitment to academic excellence, innovation, and accessibility. By leveraging Cornell’s world-class faculty, the latest technologies, and research-based pedagogies, we aim to create a transformative learning experience that prepares our students to meet the challenges of a rapidly changing world.

Cornell SCE’s Values

The School of Continuing Education (SCE) shares and upholds Cornell’s core values of purposeful discovery, free and open inquiry and expression, a community of belonging, exploration across boundaries, changing lives through engagement, and respect for the natural environment.

In addition, we are guided by a set of SCE values that inform our decisions, actions, and interactions with our students, faculty, staff, and partners. These values are:

Excellence

As Cornell's School of Continuing Education, we are part of an Ivy League institution that is among the top universities in the world. We are “One Cornell,” meaning that students taking summer, winter, or year-round classes through SCE benefit from the same high-quality academic standards and faculty expertise as offered during Cornell’s fall/spring semesters. We strive for excellence in all we do and constantly seek ways to improve our effectiveness and leverage the university’s unique resources.

Accessibility

As Cornell University’s Continuing Education statement asserts: “We are dedicated to making educational and experiential opportunities accessible to the broadest possible range of audiences and participants throughout New York State, our nation, and the world.” To this end, SCE provides flexible learning options designed to meet the needs of students of diverse ages, interests, and backgrounds from around the world.

Impact

Believing that sharing knowledge is as important as gaining it, we provide pathways for students to apply their education, transforming their Cornell experiences into practical, real-world endeavors that, in the words of Ezra Cornell, “do the greatest good.”

Learning for life

SCE embodies Cornell’s commitment to learning as a lifelong journey. Thus, we develop and offer programs designed to help individuals achieve personal, academic, and professional success at all stages of their lives.

Cultivating a culture of inclusion and respect

We celebrate diversity, pursue equity, drive inclusion, and promote belonging among our students, faculty, staff, and academic partners. We value the contributions of all, recognizing that our differences make us stronger.

Collaboration

We promote interdisciplinary collaboration and exploration that fosters innovation and a broader perspective on the world. In service of this goal, we initiate and nurture mutually beneficial partnerships across and beyond the university.

Innovation

We embrace innovation as a means of advancing knowledge, solving grand challenges, inspiring curiosity and creativity, and enhancing the learning experience for all our students.