BYU Division of Continuing Education

The BYU Division of Continuing Education (DCE) is a division of Brigham Young University (BYU) that oversees continuing education programs.

Attempts at BYU to offer continuing education programs date back to Karl G. Maeser offering night classes to workers at the Provo Woolen Mills in 1876. However night classes and other attempts to reach out to non-matriculated students were haphazard through the next few decades.

The Polysophical Society was organized in 1877 to give lectures open to the general public. At first most of the lectures were given by students. By 1903 the program was organized as the lyceum program with John C. Swensen as its director and most of the lectures were either by BYU faculty or by professors and lecturers invited from elsewhere.

The DCE as an organization began in 1921 when Franklin S. Harris, BYU's president, organized the Extension Division. Lowry Nelson served as the first director. Nelson believed that educational opportunity should not be limited to those who could formally attend colleges and universities in the standard campus format. In 1946, Harold Glen Clark was made director of the extension division. Clark oversaw a major expansion of the role of BYU and the expansion or creation of many of the programs that BYU still offers, staying at the head of the program until he became the first president of the Provo Temple.

The Bachelor of General Studies (BGS) program is an accredited bachelor's degree from BYU, designed to help former students who left the university without completing a degree. The program's motto is "Finish at home what you started at BYU." Students may apply previously earned credit towards their final degree.

Students who are formally accepted into the program complete a BGS degree, with a major in General Studies, and an emphasis in American Studies, English, Family Life, History, Management or Psychology.

Evening classes offered allows students and members of the community to attend BYU classes without formally applying to the university. Classes can be taken to satisfy degree requirements for transfer to another university, or to satisfy educational or career goals.

Education Week is a one-week time of lectures in August. Most of the participants are adults, significantly more females than males, who want to augment their personal enrichment or education. However, there are also teenage youth participants with some lectures aimed specifically at teenagers and even dances for the youth. The minimum age for participation is 14. Over 1,000 classes are offered.

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