Higher education in the United States is currently grappling with two significant challenges that threaten its sustainability: the repercussions of the COVID-19 pandemic, which has led to a decline in enrollments, and the 2023 Supreme Court decision to prohibit affirmative action in college admissions. This essay explores how these challenges…

Over the course of the previous two decades, successive governments have attempted to attract students from diverse backgrounds as part of an overarching ambition to widen participation in Higher Education (HE). As part of those efforts, there has been a proliferation of Further Education Colleges (FECs) utilised to meet those ends. In 2021,…

Institutions are aggressively recruiting adult learners and developing adult degree completion programs. This is a hyper-competitive market. Many institutions lack experience working with this population. This paper outlines proven strength-based enrollment management strategies to instill confidence and provide student support for adult learners.…

Driven by a shifting landscape and increased competition for students, institutions of higher education (IHE) are working to differentiate themselves to consumers in order to attract new students. These differentiation efforts have increasingly focused on the adult, non-traditional student demographic. As IHEs strive to include claims of quality…

It is well established that participation in formal adult education varies by individual background characteristics. However, less attention has been paid to examining inequality in participation as a consequence of policy changes, such as educational expansion. This paper examines the process of tremendous expansion in Swedish Higher Vocational…

There is a growing movement across the country to get more adults to enroll in college and complete higher education programs. Fewer than half of the nearly 170 million U.S. residents between the ages of 25 and 64 have obtained a postsecondary degree or certificate. The statistics for adult students of color who have attained higher education are…

Although traditional student enrollment is declining, the nontraditional segment of students is growing. This enrollment pattern will require recruitment strategies that speak directly to the adult learners. There is robust adoption of social media use by individuals and by organizations for marketing purposes. Social media marketing includes…

As the economy in the United States continues to emerge from a recession and as jobs become more technologically advanced rendering other jobs obsolete, more and more Americans over the age of 50 are now attending college for a variety of reasons. Around 77% of the so-called Plus 50 students were enrolled in two-year public institutions. Other…

The 2013-18 West Virginia Higher Education Policy Commission master plan, "Leading the Way: Access. Success. Impact" was developed to provide a programmatic framework and goals to enable the state's system of public four-year institutions to meet the educational needs of West Virginians. A state economy in flux with declining revenues…

The 42st annual conference of the Adult and Higher Education Alliance (AHEA) was held at the University of Central Florida in March 2018 and explored the theme, "Quality of Life in Adult Learning." The purpose of the Adult and Higher Education Alliance (AHEA) is to help institutions of higher education develop and sustain learning…

The paper examined the place of Distance Education (DE) as a method of Adult Education in Nigeria and its contribution to national development. The paper discussed DE practice and challenges in some African countries and related this to the Nigerian situation. The paper further noted the challenge of the national admission body for regular…

Adult learners, and women in particular, have to combat a number of specific barriers to participate in lifelong learning opportunities. Frequently, delivery modes of adult learning programmes do not take these varying demands into consideration (McCulloch & Stokes, 2008). However, when they do, positive results ensue. This case study…

Internationally, "College for All" policies are creating new forms of vocational higher education (HE), and shifting relationships between HE and further education (FE) institutions. In this paper, we consider the way in which this is being implemented in England, drawing on a detailed qualitative case study of a regional HE-FE…

In the article, "Completion Agenda for Baby Boomers", Moltz highlights how community colleges are currently implementing programs, such as the American Association of Community Colleges' Plus 50 Completion strategy, to encourage older learners to return to America's college campuses. The effects of the recent recession and the…

African American women are underrepresented in computer technology disciplines in institutions of higher education throughout the United States. Although equitable gender representation is progressing in most fields, much less information is available on why institutions are still lagging in workforce diversity, a problem which can be lessened by…