Rapid change and the explosion of technology have created a need for continual updating in education. The Continuing Education Unit (CEU) appears to be fulfilling these needs of the individual learner, the college and university, the professional society, the licensing board, the accrediting organizations, the employer and many other groups. The greatest rationale for the CEU is the ease with which it may be applied to existing programs of continuing education. At the University of Missouri-Rolla, computerized program recording and efficient data storage and retrieval of the CEU's are utilized and these units have been incorporated into a permanent student record system similar to the one presently used for credit courses. The real value of the CEU is that it is intended to have merit or utility only in such instances that it meets the needs of a particular clientele group. The key to the success of the CEU will be found in its discriminating use. While it is basically a quantifying mechanism, the administrative process with which the CEU is implemented can and should provide the quality control factors to make it a meaningful measurement. (MW)