4 Strategic Lessons Learned from the University of St Andrews on Building Irresistible Continuing Education Programs

In today’s increasingly competitive continuing education landscape, the institutions that stand out aren’t necessarily the ones scaling the fastest, they’re the ones scaling with intention.

At UPCEA 2025, we had the pleasure to present together with the University of St Andrews who offered a compelling look at what intentional growth can look like. While many continuing education institutions are broadening their portfolios in pursuit of more enrollments, the University of St Andrews is taking a different route: achieving global impact through focused niche excellence.

Drawing from Sarah Franke’s session on Mastering Niche Excellence, here are four practical strategies continuing education leaders can apply to stand out, scale sustainably, and stay true to their institutional DNA, whether you’re just beginning to scale or refining a mature continuing education offering.

One of the most common missteps in growth strategies for continuing education is expanding too quickly across too many subject areas. The assumption is that more offerings equal more learners. In reality, this often leads to diluted program quality, fractured brand identity, and internal inefficiencies when offered just for the sake of offering the courses.

The University of St Andrews takes the opposite approach. Rather than chasing scale by diversifying the course portfolio, the university focuses on areas where it can truly lead. Its online short courses programme include a select number of courses that align with institutional strengths such as art history, mediation, international relations and respond to specific learner needs with precision.

💡 Expert tip:

Before expanding your online courses catalog, identify where your institution has a unique chance to stand out. Where does your brand carry the most weight? What unmet needs exist in your learner audience that you’re uniquely positioned to serve?

Clarity on your niche allows you to build programs that are both academically rigorous and commercially viable, programs that become known for their quality, not just their availability.

Want to dive deeper? Hear Sarah Franke’s insights on how to deliver top-tier educational content in this short video:

For most non-traditional learners, your program is their first experience with your institution and in many cases, their only one. That means the end-to-end experience matters just as much as the content itself.

The University of St Andrews understands this deeply. The university has intentionally crafted a digital learner journey that feels premium, personal, and intuitive but is built to retain the learner. Their EdTech eco-system includes:

• Eduframe for seamless course management, enrollment, and administration. Learners move effortlessly from the website to payment and Canvas LMS, with all back-end processes automated. It supports multiple intakes per year, designed for flexibility and scalability.
• Canvas LMS for delivering high-quality digital learning with a clean, branded interface. It also provides robust analytics to monitor learner engagement.
• WPM payments for secure, efficient payment processing.
• Panopto for video integrations that enhance content delivery.
• JISC survey tool for gathering timely student feedback, which enables the institution to improve its learning-experience continuously.
• Certifier for issuing digital badges that recognize learner achievement.

The result? Not only reduced administrative friction, but also a premium non-traditional learner experience that mirrors the prestige of the university itself, from the first click on the website to course completion.

💡 Expert tip:

Your EdTech ecosystem is not just an operational tool, it’s a brand experience. Audit your end-to-end non-traditional learner journey on a regular basis. Can a prospective learner find, register, and begin a course seamlessly? Are communications timely, clear, and consistent? Are your systems working for learners or making their work harder?

A thoughtful experience isn’t just a nice-to-have, it’s a competitive differentiator.

Hear directly from Sarah Franke on how the University of St Andrews leverages their EdTech ecosystem to design seamless learner experiences for their online short courses and pick up additional practical tips for your own programs:

Too often, continuing education offerings are designed with a single transaction in mind: enroll, complete, exit. But at institutions like the University of St Andrews, the goal is far more ambitious, to build relationships that last beyond one course.

By embedding continuous engagement points into the learner lifecycle, the university fosters long-term loyalty. This includes:

• Clear pathways for continuing study
• Feedback loops to refine offerings based on real learner insights to fine-tune learner experiences
• Brand cues and academic rigor that mirror their degree programs.

The outcome? Learners who return, refer others, and proudly associate themselves with the university.

💡 Expert tip:

Completion of the course is just the beginning. Design programs that invite learners to continue to come back. Beyond enrollments and completions, track engagement over time. Are students signing up for additional courses? Do they open your follow-up emails? Would they recommend the program to peers? Focus on building a learning community, not just delivering one-off courses.

When you optimize for the lifetime value of a learner, rather than a single sale, your continuing education strategy becomes more sustainable and more impactful.

In today’s fast-evolving job market, learners seek education that doesn’t just build knowledge – it builds opportunity. At the University of St Andrews, the team actively listens to feedback from employers and monitors industry trends to ensure their courses equip learners with skills that are not only academically valuable but also professionally relevant. By aligning educational content with real-world demands, they strengthen the career outcomes for their students, keep their programs market-responsive and provide employers with a more productive and educated workforce.

💡 Expert tip:

Strengthen your ties to the industries your learners aspire to enter or advance in. Stay connected to evolving workforce needs to ensure your offerings remain both aspirational and immediately applicable. Regularly gather feedback from employers, invite guest speakers from the field, and consider co-creating microcredentials with businesses. It’s a win-win: learners gain market-ready skills, and your programs gain credibility and demand.

The University of St Andrews reminds us that “niche” doesn’t mean limiting impact, it’s a strategy. By staying true to its institutional identity, investing in digital EdTech infrastructure that supports learners, and designing for long-term relationships, they’re not only meeting today’s market demands, they’re setting a new bar for quality in continuing education offerings.

For CE leaders navigating their own path forward, the message is clear: Scale smart. Deliver with purpose. And build programs that learners don’t just choose, they remember.