As student enrollment in colleges across the United States continues to diversify, teaching and learning practices must keep pace with demographic shifts. The growing majority of today's college student body, dubbed post-traditional learners, is older, racially and ethnically diverse, more experienced in work and life, and stretched by competing…

Previous research is unequivocal regarding higher education's importance for regional or national development, and the local presence of highly educated individuals in a municipality is crucial for its prosperity and development. The study aim is to increase understanding of representational perceptions of future university students in rural areas…

This article is an autoethnographic account of a 'schizoaffective' sufferer learning about and navigating the environs of saneness as a graduate student resisting traditional sane pedagogic structures. Culling from theories found in adult education, Whiteness Studies, and Mad Studies to show that saneness can be conceptualized as a site of…

In the wider context of national growth and investment in higher education in China, more mature students seek to gain access to university education. Considering the far-reaching socioeconomic and political shifts in contemporary China and its higher education sector in particular, this study explores the experience of mature university students…

In the context of active development of further education services many universities become interested in engaging students into further education programs. From this perspective, it is extremely important to determine relevant social factors majorly impacting the students' representation about further education and its role in building and…

This handbook offers an expanded discourse on transformative learning by making the turn into new passageways to explore the phenomenon of transformation. It curates diverse discourses, knowledges and practices of transformation, in ways that both includes and departs from the adult learning mainstay of transformative learning and adult education.…

This dissertation examines the relationship between community colleges and prisons as similar institutions that absorb and manage displaced workers, economic refugees, and dispossessed adult populations. Based on interviews with adult learners in two community college settings, I discuss how these two seemingly distinctive institutions work…

A market paradigm shift towards a 'knowledge-based economy' means Australia is moving towards a major skills crisis whereby the workforce will lack skills attainable from higher education. Moreover, those from low socio-economic backgrounds, and who are confronted with disadvantage, still face challenges in gaining entry to university. The Fast…

This article analyses the expansion of higher education offered by technical and further education institutes in Australia and it compares this provision with the expansion of higher education in further education colleges in England, and baccalaureate degrees in community colleges in the United States. It argues that this provision can open new…

Within recent years, there has been a trend of students (traditional and nontraditional) travelling abroad, more particularly to the United States, with the view of pursuing higher education at both the graduate and undergraduate level. Among the most popular influential factors to obtain higher education internationally are government and private…

While TVET literature focuses on the potential role of the sector in socio-economic development, seldom is attention given to how socio-economic conditions and policies affect the development of the sector. This paper endeavours to contribute to filling this gap. It argues that examining the factors that influence access, equity and outcomes of…

Many young adults diagnosed with autism spectrum conditions (ASC) intend to go to college and/or university, yet research suggests that these individuals find aspects of college and university life challenging. To explore the views of individuals directly affected by these challenges, a systematic review of the existing qualitative literature in…

Drawing from Cultural-Historical Activity Theory, this research analyzed the structural contradictions existing in the variety of educational activities and resistance among a group of alienated adult students in Korea National Open University (KNOU). Despite KNOU's quantitative development in student number, the students' resistance shed light on…

This study assessed the plausibility of using Ajzen's (1991) theory of planned behavior (TPB) to identify the factors that motivate adults to participate in Adult Basic Education (ABE) classes at a Southeast Wisconsin Community College. The original TPB (Ajzen, 1991) attests that planned behaviors are determined by behavioral intentions which are…

This article investigates the social benefits of initial vocational education and training (VET) for individuals in different European contexts. Drawing on data from the European Community Household Panel, results show that initial VET is associated with positive changes in social outcomes for individuals across Europe. Health benefits were mainly…