This paper examines the rapidly developing trends of cooperative education and nontraditional study. The author sees these trends as an attempt to end the self-imposed isolation of higher education. The first, cooperative education, brings students out of the more traditionally cloistered classroom setting into the world of work. The second, nontraditional studies, brings adults who in past years have completed college back into the classroom. These trends are seen as a response to pressures to integrate education into the life needs of learners as well as to allow greater educational opportunity for a larger number of potential students. An extensive bibliography is included. (MJM)