Despite the fact that students over age 25 will soon comprise the majority in higher education, programming and resource allocation at many universities remain inadequate to meet adult needs. Institutions have also failed to invest in adult education research. At the same time, pressures for objective assessment of student learning in higher education are increasing. Faced by these challenges, the University of Phoenix has developed a comprehensive outcomes and impact assessment program to assess the effects of a university education on students, particularly adult students. Process assessments are conducted using the Academic Quality Management System, a family of instruments and measures designed to monitor the student's day-to-day activities in the educational environment. Components include the student and faculty end-of-course surveys; student comment analysis system; grading practices analyses; registration survey; graduation survey; and comments to the chair. The second part of the program, the Adult Learning Outcomes Assessment project, is an interdependent group of measures to assess the extent to which the institution is accomplishing its fundamental mission and purposes. Components are the comprehensive cognitive assessment; affective impact assessment; alumni impact survey/interview; faculty impact survey; employer impact survey/interview; capstone research project assessment; and qualitative case studies. The findings of these assessment activities are built into regular institutional reporting systems, and administrative and academic managers are held accountable for their assessment profiles. The University of Phoenix program serves as a precedent for other institutions in the evolution of assessment into a condition for conducting the business of higher education. (YLB)