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ABSTRACT
The study examines employment, income, motivations and barriers of adult learners, comparing results from a 2004-2005 study with results from a 2010 study of nontraditional students (age 25 and over) enrolled in four-year colleges that offered programs designed for working adults. The study compares responses gathered from a convenience sample of face-to-face learners (683) in five private institutions and one public university in 2004-2005 with those from a convenience sample of face-to-face and online learners (530) in three private institutions in 2010. Economic items for comparison purposes included part-time and full-time employment, and household income.
Keywords: motivation, barriers, adult learner enrollment, economic prosperity, economic hardship
Introduction
The recessionary pressures of unemployment, a tight credit market, and rising consumer prices have compounded to make post-secondary education both more attractive and less affordable at the same time. While bricks and mortar college enrollment continues to be challenged by students' electronic access to higher education, the U.S. government investigation of for-profit education in the past few years (GAO, 2010) does not appear to have dampened students' interest in online degrees, as evidenced by the meteoric increase in online students. However, negative publicity regarding for-profit schools may have encouraged prospective students to become savvier shoppers for education, opting for programs which promote high graduation rates, internship programs, impressive post graduation employment rates, and alumni with jobs offering competitive salaries.
Traditional colleges and universities have increasingly either added online programs as an extension of existing curricula or focused recruitment and retention efforts on adult learners in after-hours on-campus programs. The expansion of online programming and adult degree programs has opened campuses to a wider student demographic and has provided significant opportunity for working individuals to enroll. Maehl (2004) provides a succinct account of the history, political-legal environment, and terminology of adult degree programs considering the evolutionary pressures of technology, quality, and for-profit competitors.
Motivations of and barriers to adults returning to college were examined in the initial study, data collection for which began in early 2004 with convenience samples of over 600 adult learners enrolled in four-year, non-traditional degree programs at private colleges. At that time, annualized U.S. unemployment stood at 5.5%, as compared to 9.6% at the end of 2010 (Consumer price index, 2011), and hovering...