4-13-07 More Focus is Needed on Adult Students in Colleges

Volume 20 For Publication Date: April 13, 2007 No. 8

More Focus is Needed on Adult Students in Colleges

The Lumina Foundation, a nonprofit organization located in Indiana that focuses on access and success in the nation’s higher education institutions, has just published its latest body of research in a report titled, Returning to Learning: Adults’ Success in College is Key to America’s Future.

Historically, our nation’s industrial economy has provided many ways for adults to make a living without having earned a college degree. However, the knowledge economy and global industrial production of current times have made it necessary for people to earn postsecondary degrees. The purpose of this report is to examine the adult learner population, draw conclusions about the nature and the needs of this population, and make recommendations to policymakers on how to help ensure the success of these individuals.

Findings

The research was based upon surveys of more than 1,500 adult students at more than 700 different higher education institutions. The major findings of the study were:

· Within the group defined as “adult learners,” there is significant diversity of individuals in terms of demographics, social locations, aspirations, and levels of preparation, so a “typical” adult learner cannot easily be defined.

· While short-term, noncredit courses are critical to meeting the demands of the emerging knowledge economy, these courses are often not considered in state funding models and/or are not well understood by policymakers—referred to as the “hidden college” by researchers.

· The traditional paths to postsecondary education won’t work for most adult learners because of their need to work and raise families at the same time as attending college. They need convenient access and a high degree of certainty in choosing a program, so they select programs that are specifically designed to serve the working adult, which often are at institutions that cannot meet the needs of a wide range of adult learners or the public goals for adult higher education.

· One of the most influential factors in the success of an adult learner is counseling and assistance with planning the student’s path to their postsecondary goal.

Adult learners are critical in achieving state and national social and economic goals, and are very diverse in their individual needs and aspirations. The vast majority of programs currently offered by higher education institutions do not adequately address the diverse needs of the adult learner population.

Recommendations

The report concludes that policymakers must:

· Identify those adult learners that are at most risk of failure and determine their needs.

· Reconsider the typical, short-term training programs aimed at making adult learners successful in the labor market and gear more programs toward a postsecondary degree in order to help ensure the long-term success of adult learners.

· Develop counseling and planning programs to help ensure that adult learners have a pathway to achieve their long-term goals.

· Work with business and industry to provide subsidies and other forms of support for working adult learners.

The overall conclusion of the report is that policymakers need to better determine the needs of adult learners in order to provide additional pathways and support for earning these degrees. The full text of this report can be viewed at: www.luminafoundation.org/publications.

—Sheila G. Vickers