Advanced Study Program

Established 1964

A.K.A. Advanced Engineering Study Program,

Center for Advanced Engineering Study,

Center for Advanced Engineering Studies,

Center for Advanced Educational Services

Provides access to regular MIT classes for engineers, scientists, and managers without requiring entry into degree programs

In 1963, MIT President Julius Stratton noted that a new category of post-graduate student was emerging, at MIT and across the country, and announced that a $5 million grant from the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation would be used to create a new center “to enlarge the potential of mature engineers and engineering managers now in the profession and help them to cope with the advancing technology of our time.”

From its base in Building 9, the Center for Advanced Engineering Studies began hosting groups of fellows each academic year starting in 1964, while also becoming an early entrant in multimedia education, producing widely used video courses and accompanying texts. Milestones include a collaboration on total quality management with pioneer W. Edwards Deming, and interactive CD-ROM courses created during the 1990s.

In 1995, the CAES was reorganized and renamed the Center for Advanced Educational Services, with responsibility for the Advanced Study Program (ASP) and the Summer Session (later Short Programs). The new CAES dived quickly into distance learning, taking advantage of newly available World Wide Web and satellite capabilities to offer programs worldwide.

Another reorganization in 2003 moved the ASP back to its original home in the School of Engineering, under a new Office of Professional Education Programs, now known as MIT Professional Education, where it has continued its work, serving about 75 fellows annually; alums as of 2014 total about 2,500.