Over the past 15 years, a growing body of research into the issues care-experienced people face when accessing higher education (HE) has led to welcome support developments to attempt to redress inequalities. However, such support ceases upon completion of undergraduate degrees. Without continued support, constraints in accessing taught…

Through a gerontological lens, using grounded theory methods and both qualitative and quantitative data, we investigated the "off-time" enrollment of mid- and later-life (MLL) community college students (age 40+) to explore how their enrollment decisions and academic goals are situated in the timing and intersection of life events and…

This paper summarizes the results of a qualitative study focused on the career shifts of professionals who previously worked in non-academic organizations and transitioned into academic careers. It explores the factors that influence the decision of professionals to reinvent themselves as career academics as well as their level of satisfaction…

Despite copious research discussing student veterans, minimal literature addresses military veteran faculty members. To address the gap, this study used qualitative interviews to describe the perceptions and experiences of military veterans (N = 12) who successfully transitioned into faculty roles within U.S. postsecondary institutions. A…

Faculty characteristics are changing, and traditional theories may not account for the intersection of increasing numbers of women faculty and career changers to higher education in examining faculty development. Using a conceptual framework composed of adult transition and career development models, this phenomenological study investigated the…

There are many research projects focused on pre-service teachers' professional development programmes but only a few focus on mid-life career-changing teachers' career decision. This paper worked with data collected from semi-structured interviews with 11 mid-life career-changing secondary school teachers. The aim was to understand the career…

Purpose: Despite the sporadic evolution of artificial intelligence, the most valuable asset of any organization in the modern world is human resources. This study aims to reveal that partnerships between higher education institutions (HEIs) and employers will ease the process of employee mid-career development in Uganda's corporate employment…

This study explored a question being asked by many current higher education leaders: Who will serve as future leaders in U.S. institutions of higher education? There is an anticipated leadership crisis (Anft, 2018; Appadurai, 2009; McDade et al., 2017; Selingo, Chheng, & Clark, 2017) which suggests an inadequate "number" of people,…

Adult professionals enroll in online graduate programs and rely on social support and on their ability to self-regulate to be successful. The literature on academic self-regulation among emerging adults (traditional college age) is ample, but we do not know how social support interacts with academic self-regulation among adult graduate students at…

The purpose of this study is to investigate the benefits of higher education in mid-life from the perspective of life course agency. Studies concerning the benefits of degree-oriented higher education have been mainly conducted using survey questionnaires and quantitative methods. In order to gain a more comprehensive picture, this qualitative…

A small-scale phenomenological study reveals interesting and suggestive insights into the pedagogical technology experiences of late-career faculty with institutional recognition as successful instructors. Referred to in much of the literature as "resistant" and assumed to lack training in pedagogical technology and/or to adhere to…

In view of the persistence of health inequalities and declines in leisure-sport participation over the life course, several quantitative investigations have explored the links between participation and other leisure activities, which have their foundations in childhood and youth, as a means of understanding adults' health behaviours. This paper…

Fewer than half of all Americans will be financially ready to retire at age 65, according to a recent Boston College study. Two coinciding needs, purpose and a paycheck, are driving a huge surge of interest in meaningful "encore careers"--paid second acts in areas such as education, human services, the environment, and fighting poverty.…

The propulsion theory of creative contributions is a theory that focuses on how a creative act or product builds on and adds to knowledge in various fields. In this article, we apply the propulsion theory of creative contributions not to creative discoveries or inventions, but rather to late-career decisions about future directions in which one…

This study used archival sources to examine the factors that encouraged for-profit business education to shift during the 1970s from small, certificate programs for bookkeepers and secretaries to large, multisite universities for mid-level managers. Using data from the Occupational Outlook Handbook, as well as trend data from the Bureau of Labor…