As university institutions have grown, the university and community relationship has again become obscure and troubling. Today, no one has to defend the thesis that adults can learn. We have turned our attention to how, when, and at what price. Over the last twenty years, postsecondary education has witnessed a shift from elite to mass education. Adult public education, mostly of a remedial nature, was largely a failure prior to the mid-fifties. But by that time in Canada and the U.S., the private sector (industry, armed services, etc.) had created teaching and learning systems that sometimes dwarfed the public sector in scope, results, and costs. During this same period, the mistaken view of education as an investment was accepted and transmitted to developing countries. What has been thrown into perspective now is the distinction between learning and education and how the two are related. Education, a social endeavor, is the way society responds to the capacity of its members to learn. The Canadian university must create its own community not identified by a single place, the student's age, or the instructional process. It must cease to evaluate conventional students for society. The university should focus on where, how, why, and what learning is taking place. (CSS)