As nontraditional students, working adults over 25-year-old students, outgrow 18 to 24-year-old students, new forms of higher education attract a greater number of adult learners through distance learning technologies. The emergence of for-profit universities, virtual universities, and corporate universities challenges the role of traditional colleges and universities in adult and continuing education. As a greater number of universities go the distance for adult learners, they tend to inflate their goals and outreach their customers. First, distance higher education is often aimed at accomplishing multiple goals at the same time. But institutional attempts to improve efficiency and equality simultaneously may conflict. Secondly, distance higher education is often designed to meet diverse knowledge needs. But institutional attempts to meet the needs of students as well as the needs of industry and government may clash. While there are mixed views of the effects of distance higher education on adult learners, it remains to be examined how the adoption of distance learning technologies by universities will impact adult and continuing education. In light of these concerns, I review recent developments in distance higher education from diverse perspectives, and discuss emerging policy challenges and research issues.