Today’s Learner
The age of the 18- to 22-year-old residential student as higher education’s main demographic is over. Today, higher education institutions must serve a rich student population with unique demands and specific needs. Colleges and universities must work harder than ever to understand and serve today’s students.
Gaining Insights into Adult Learners: Looking at Findings from the Adult Prospect Survey
Howard Lurie | Principal Analyst of Online and Continuing Education for Eduventures Research, National Research Center for College and University Admissions (NRCCUA)As educational alternatives for adult learners—such as MOOCs and bootcamps—proliferate in the academic market, colleges and universities must do more to recruit this growing segment of students. What’s more, the…
Post-Traditional Perspectives: Understanding the Needs of Adult Learners
Laurie Quinn | Provost and Senior Vice President for Academics, Champlain CollegeIn January 2018, Champlain College Online released Adult Viewpoints 2017: Online Learning & the Back To School Decision, a survey that reveals significant new findings on how US adults between…
Making Sense of the New Transfer Student Persistence Metrics
Walter Pearson | Dean of the School of Continuing and Professional Studies, Loyola University-ChicagoNew data from the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES), reported in Inside Higher Education, finally tells us how our institutions perform for transfer students. Prior to this release in…
Declining College Enrollment from Traditional-Age Students Will Hit Hard: Are Adult Students the Answer?
Walter Pearson | Dean of the School of Continuing and Professional Studies, Loyola University-ChicagoIn a new book by Nathan Grawe entitled Demographics and the Demand for Higher Education, the author develops a higher education demand index (HEDI) that looks at the slowing growth…
Shared Benefits of Adult Postsecondary Access
Louis Soares | Vice President of Strategy, Research and Advancement, American Council on EducationThis year, the American Council on Education (ACE) released The Post-Traditional Learners Manifesto Revisited. The report explores advancement opportunities for the millions of Americans seeking to upgrade their human capital…
Learning by Doing for the 21st Century
Cathrael Kazin | Managing Partner, Volta Learning GroupMy grandmother was a seamstress and my grandfather a housepainter. They supported the family with the work of their hands. Actually, they didn’t have much choice. Though they came to…
Supporting Post-Traditional Students Drives Broad and Significant Benefits
Louis Soares | Vice President of Strategy, Research and Advancement, American Council on EducationCalls for change are familiar to many of us in the higher education community, and in recent years they have grown louder. Government, members of the media, employers, and most…