Context: The paper focuses on an analysis of school-based vocational education and training (VET) of adults in Slovakia against the background of the concept of second-chance education (hereafter SCE). The concept of SCE involves different conditions of education to those that adults faced during their initial education and were unable to meet.…

As the number of traditional-aged students steadily declines in the United States, colleges and universities must seek to attract and enroll the large number of adults who have some college but no degree. This research sought to understand how one southern mid-sized institution recruited and enrolled a consistent number of adult learners over…

The focus of this paper is to report the findings of a qualitative study whose purpose was to analyse the experiences of adult learners pursuing evening postgraduate degree programmes at the university level in Tanzania. Using ethnographic research combined with multiple case research design, together with in-depth interviews and documentary…

In the current research, we developed and validated a questionnaire to measure Chinese working adults' motivation to study accounting on a path of lifelong learning in Hong Kong, China. We conducted individual in-depth interviews with adult learners (n = 30) and professionals (n = 12) in study 1 and study 2. Qualitative analysis showed six…

The Faculty of Lifelong Learning at South East Technological University's Carlow campus, is one of the largest providers of part-time learning in the Irish Higher Education sector. A large majority of our lifelong learners, 88%, are adult learners over the age of 23, therefore the perspectives of our part-time learners offer us valuable insights…

Ample literature on the retention of undergraduate students is available. However, information on the retention of postgraduate students in doctoral research is not abundant, especially when the population comprises working adult students studying on a part-time basis. This article aims to explore factors that influence retention in this group of…

The increasing number of adult learners in higher education is a trend that has been observed in recent years. An impetus for this trend is the need for upskilling and re-skilling in order to stay relevant and employable in today's world of globalised knowledge. However, finding uninterrupted blocks of time to study in adult learners' busy…

In contrast to traditional students, post-traditional students follow a broken path through the education system. Therefore, they are older when studying and often have jobs and families. The aim of the present study was to investigate motivation and personality character traits in 67 adult learners (part-time students) and 84 traditional students…

In this study I deployed quasi-experimental methods to explore enrollment responses to a unique statewide college promise program for adult students attending college within the two-year public postsecondary education sector in Tennessee. State policymakers implemented Tennessee Reconnect in 2018 to encourage adult students without a college…

This study sought to fill a gap in the literature by considering the role of motivation in post-secondary aspirations of adult learners, specifically full versus part-time status, previous level of educational attainment, years of work experience, and the selection of an academic program. The data from this study came from adult students ages 25…

As the adult learner population in higher education continues to increase, there has been a renewed focus on how to best serve this student population in recent years. While adult learners are more likely to take online classes and to enroll part-time, engagement and retention efforts have not heavily focused on part-time online adult learners,…

Introduction: The COVID-19 pandemic resulted in many tertiary institutions switching overnight from taught to online lectures without much preparation. Studies suggest that the sudden change has impacted on students' satisfaction with online learning in differing ways. Yet, little is known about how this change impacted specifically on adult…

Adult learners' retention, persistence, and completion remain a significant challenge for many higher education institutions. The purpose of this action research study was to investigate the factors and improve persistence for part-time older adult learners of color enrolled in a credit-bearing certificate program within a small college in a large…

Work-Based Learning (WBL) in higher education is a field of study established in the UK that has developed since the early 1990s. The possibility for this development came when several universities across the UK were awarded a grant in 1992, from the then Department for Employment, to develop learning from work, in the curriculum. The 1992…

Across the country, colleges using Complete College America (CCA) strategies are improving graduation rates. But despite these overall gains, data continues to show persistent institutional performance gaps for BILPOC (Black, Indigenous, Latinx, People of Color) students and students ages 25 and older. Students in both of these groups…