Since the first establishment of Correspondence Education Department in 1958, School of Continuing Education of Qufu Normal University has experienced several times of title-changing, including Adult Education Department in 1990, Institute of Vocational and Adult Education in 2008.

   It is responsible for the implementing and management of continuing education including training professionals, accomplishing academic researches and managing non-academic education. It comprises the Administration office, Teaching Department, Self-taught Examination Training Department as well as the Institute of Vocational and Continuing Education. There are 20 faculty members, including two professors, four associate professors and three teachers with Ph.D degrees. The total registered correspondence students amount to more than 12,000, with more than 1000 self-taught examination students graduating each year and 30 full time students applying for master degree.

In the field of adult education, more than 150,000 correspondence students have successfully graduated. Since 2017, disciplines registered and granted by the Education Bureau of Shandong Province include 13 five-year undergraduate disciplines from high school starting point, 24 two-year-and-a-half undergraduate disciplines starting from junior college, 6 two-year-and-a-half junior college disciplines from high school starting point.

The school has actively explored innovative modes of development and realized diversified development means for self-taught examination projects.It has been entrusted by the Education Bureau of Shandong province to undertake the self-taught examination work of primary and middle school teachers. It has succeeded in exploring a new cultivation mode to combine adult correspondence education program with self-taught examination program. Since 2013, more than 4100 applicants majored in Chinese language and Literature and pedagogy have completed thesis defenses, 3,000 of whom have graduated successfully and received degrees.

The school has carried out active and effective explorations in non-degree continuing education. In accordance with the national project of constructing outstanding traditional culture model and the local plan of building a powerful cultural province, with the help of School of Chinese Classics and Research Institute of Confucianism of Qufu Normal University, the school has established a platform for outstanding traditional culture education and constructed a non-academic education model featuring Confucianism and excellent traditional culture. In addition, the school has accomplished a lot in helping full-time college students to prepare for the examination for teacher qualification certificate and teacher position, which has been recognized and welcomed by college students.

In the long run, the school has attached much attention to reform and innovation and strengthened the construction of connotation. It has established its own distinctive advantages and characteristics in the field of education management, teaching management, and the education quality monitoring and guaranteeing system. In the 1996-1997 national evaluation of correspondence education, the school ranked 6th in the country and 1st in Shandong Province. So far, the awarded titles include: "excellent adult higher education school", "outstanding collective of adult higher education in Shandong province", "outstanding training center of primary and middle school teachers in Shandong province", "advanced collective of continuing education for primary and secondary school teachers in Shandong province", "advanced institution of vocational education and adult education research", “advanced collective of the national self-taught examination for higher education", and etc.

In 1998, the school was approved by the degree committee of state Council to grant master degree in adult education, filling the gap of  master degree in adult education in Shandong province. In 2006 and 2011, the discipline of adult education was named as the key discipline of the 11th and 12th five-year-plan of Shandong province. So far, the discipline is the only key discipline of adult education in Shandong province. At present, there are eight master supervisors, including 6 professors and 5 doctors, whose academic interests are mainly elementary adult education theories, adult teaching theories, teacher education research, human resources development and training research.