Within the last decade, adult education has faced significant challenges in terms of its relevance to socio-economic development as it sought to define itself through many international conferences. In spite of these re-conceptualisations, adult education continues to be relegated to the periphery, and therefore lacks the needed funding to play a key role in national development. This paper traces the history of university-based adult education in Ghana. The paper examines how various conceptualisations of adult education have affected university-based adult education in Ghana. Within the context of globalisation and the progression towards knowledge-based society, the paper discusses adult and continuing education as lifelong learning and explains how the Institute of Continuing and Distance Education could transforming itself into a university-based lifelong learning institution. (Contains 2 notes, 1 table, and 1 figure.)