Content area
Full text
Adult students have been a growing presence on college campuses during recent decades and there are numerous indicators that these students, often referred to as "nontraditional," constitute a significant proportion of the undergraduate student body. National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) data indicate that 38 percent of the 2007 enrollment of more than eighteen million college students were twenty-five years of age or older (NCES 2009). NCES projections of higher education enrollment from 2007-2018 suggest that the number of students over twenty-five will remain stable or increase during the current decade (Hussar and Bailey 2009). Although the focus of this issue of Peer Review and the remainder of this article will be on adults beginning or continuing their enrollment as college students at a later-than-typical age, a 2002 NCES report has frequently been cited as noting that when the term "nontraditional student" is defined more broadly to include seven characteristics not typically associated with participation in college, a full 73 percent of students maybe viewed as nontraditional (Choy2002, 1). These characteristics include
* entry to college delayed by at least one year following high school,
* having dependents,
* being a single parent,
* being employed full time,
* being financially independent,
* attending part time, and
* not having a high school diploma.
K. Patricia Cross referred to some of the same student groups using the term "non-traditional" some twenty years ago (Cross 1981). The social and economic forces that have led to adults' increased participation of in higher education in the decades since Cross used this term are not likely to abate in the near future. These influences include an aging and increasingly diverse population, the rapid pace of technological change, and the constantly shifting demands of the workplace in this era of a global economy. Adult learners who experience academic success in higher education tend to gain economic and personal benefits, which most likely provide social, political, and economic benefits for the broader society (Ritt 2008).
MULTIPLE ROLES OF ADULT LEARNERS
A key characteristic distinguishing reentry adults from other college students is the high likelihood that they are juggling other life roles while attending school, including those of worker, spouse or partner, parent, caregiver, and community member. These roles may be assets,...