It has been 15 years since the launch of the European Universities’ Charter on Lifelong Learning (EUA, 2008) which marked the first public commitment to lifelong learning at European universities. And already one year before, in 2007, eucen launched its recommendations on University Lifelong Learning (eucen, 2007). After all this time, however, offering continuing education is still not self-evident for universities – let alone “lifelong learning universities.” (ibid., 4) For a long time, universities primarily focussed on research, followed by education, and this often continues to be the case. Nevertheless, there are domains in which university continuing education (UCE) has a longer tradition. This is evident in professions that require academic training, in particular, such as the medical sector, education, and law. In these domains, UCE was and is mainly aimed at further training and for re- and up-skilling within the profession the participants were initially trained in. As recent international research by the UNESCO Institute for Lifelong Learning and Shanghai Open University (2023) shows, universities have begun realising more and more that they have a responsibility not just to respond to the rapid and often disruptive developments in the labour market, but also to act upon them. And that is urgent, looking at the current landscape (World Economic Forum, 2023), as alumni and other professionals are confronted with new demands and with questions that require new knowledge, skills, and attitudes. For them and for others, learning does not stop after the initial bachelor's and master's degree. Universities must respond to their needs and discover what needs may arise due to new competencies that are required on the labour market. Ideally, universities respond in such a way that alumni and other professionals are involved in thinking with educators about the content and form of UCE, thereby developing new forms of co-creation of knowledge. But at the same time, the workload within universities is already high and there are sometimes still calls to leave this type of education entirely to others, for instance, to specialised and/or commercial providers. Overall, the discourse on the position of UCE is not without controversy.