The aim of the research is to describe, from the perspective of staff at the Department of Continuing Education (DCE) in the University of Warwick, the unique contexts of the institution for introducing Part - time undergraduate degree programme and 2+2 honours degree programme in 1987 and in 1991 respectively. The study also focuses on the ways in which the University developed the two programmes at the level of policy and practice. The intention was to highlight the process of institutional change and the character of Further Education (FE)/Higher Education (HE) partnerships at the University of Warwick at the initial development period, in particular, from the mid 1980s to the early 1990s, A case study approach was adopted in conjunction with documentation and semi- structured interviews in order to gain in - depth qualitative data from informants. In total, four DCE staff who engaged in the development of the Part- time and 2+2 degree programmes participated in the interviews. Findings from the research indicate that the development of those two degree programmes was made possible by the particular combination of an external factor and internal factors. The external factor was national policies in favour of continuing education for adults in the UK from the mid 1980s. Key internal factors included (a) the University's beneficial link with its local communities (e.g. the University's land donated by the City of Coventry) , which led the institution's commitment to local community, (b) a group of people such as the senior leadership, the DEC staff and numbers of opinion leaders who were willing to commit themselves to widen the participation of non - traditional local adults within the university, and (c) innovative, entrepreneurial but caring cultures of the University which buttressed the new development of the PT/2+2 programmes.