For reasons of National interest embedded in the economic, political, and social determinants of the quality of life, the fostering of learning by adults is an immediate and compelling National need that requires a lucid and forthright statement of National policy and immediate attention by the Nation's colleges and universities. To meet this need, it is imperative that the Federal Goverment and the major providers of education and training to adults take definitive actions directed at meeting the following major challenges: developing or renewing employability for the unemployed, maintaining and enhancing occupational skills in the face of technological change, eliminating adult illiteracy, providing equal access to education for all adults, and developing knowledgeable citizens in an information and technological society. Recommended Federal actions in the area of financing adult learning include the stimulation of innovation in the delivery of adult education through institutional grants, encouragement of the development of improved delivery systems through multiyear challenge grants, provision of financial assistance to needy adult learners and of voucher assistance to unemployed persons, and elimination of present disincentives to adult learning in the tax system. Efforts must also be increased to develop new partnerships among labor, business, government, and higher education through such avenues as regional conferences and National, regional, and local communications networks. (Appended to this position paper are a description of a program for Federal support of adult learning and an outline of the Institutional Self-assessment Project.) (MN)