As learning societies necessitate continuous education, a growing number of part-time programs are being offered. A key challenge for part-time programs is adequately supporting students in connecting their learning within the program to their work life, which in contrast to dual education is not part of the program. To better understand such…

Current policies and interventions to enhance student success and retention are often tied to full-time enrollment, which are substantiated by studies associating part-time enrollment with lower retention and poorer academic outcomes. However, these findings are limited to studies of first-time college students and do not represent today's…

Despite the increasing number of non-traditional doctoral researchers, this population's experiences remain largely understudied and their voices unheard. Through in-depth interviews with 24 part-time online doctoral candidates, we explored the perceived facilitators and barriers to academic integration and sense of belonging, as well as how…

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…

In the UK, higher education (HE) policy discourse over the past 60 years has advocated flexible part-time HE for social mobility, personal development, economic advantage and leisure. However, part-time undergraduate HE in the UK is in steep decline. Against this backdrop, we were interested in how universities promote, or fail to promote,…

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 chapter, the authors examine considerations necessary for seeking a terminal degree. Information on program types, pros/cons of full-time and part-time enrollment, and funding opportunities are explored.

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…

Purpose: The purpose of this study is to examine the benefits and challenges of simultaneously participating part-time in a doctoral program and teaching full-time in the K-12 classroom. Design/methodology/approach: In this study, the author used autoethnography to examine the benefits and challenges she faced as a part-time doctoral student and…

Purpose: In line with business goals of customer satisfaction, higher education institutions of learning consider excellent student experience a priority. Teaching and learning are important aspects of satisfaction that are monitored annually by universities using tools such as the National Student Survey (NSS). The NSS results are useful for…

The use of technology in part-time Jewish schools during the pandemic and beyond has, with few exceptions, been limited to Zoom, a communications platform that works best for frontal teaching and small group discussion. This study focuses on two Jewish educators whose Technological Pedagogic Content Knowledge enables them to deploy a variety of…

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…

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…

As statewide college promise programs continue to develop, emerging equity concerns necessitate interrogating whom programs benefit and how expense funds can be applied. Critical Policy Analysis (CPA) is used in this chapter to understand how statewide promise programs advance or hinder racial equity across eligibility and financial aid support…