Student veterans are often viewed in popular culture with a deficit mindset. They are "wounded warriors" who are navigating mental health challenges, academically underprepared, and non-traditional students balancing other responsibilities beyond college. Despite potential lingering effects of military service, student veterans bring…

Background: In the United States, there is increased demand to expand the engineering workforce. Many military veterans have received technical training that can be leveraged in engineering. Their pursuit of engineering degrees has great potential to expand and diversify the engineering workforce. Purpose: This study examines the pathways of US…

Since the creation of the GI Bill, military veterans have had a significant effect on higher education. As U.S.-lead conflicts OIF and OEF conclude and more veterans separate from service, institutions of higher education are seeing increased numbers of service members utilizing education benefits and enrolling in college. Veterans who transition…

Community colleges strive to fulfill the unique needs of military service members, veterans and their families, a mission harkening back to wartime and the decades in which the nation's fighters were off the battlefield. Educating the nation's servicemen and women has long been a core undertaking of many community colleges, particularly in regions…

The veteran military-to-civilian transition (MCT) process continues to be complex and unwielding. Higher education has an opportunity to ease this transition, but, unfortunately many institutions still miss the mark. One mechanism higher education institutes can incorporate to help with the transition is the use of prior learning assessments or…

This report demonstrates how credit for prior learning (CPL) can revolutionize education and career advancement for older adults and veterans while supporting the success of postsecondary education institutions. Focusing on the untapped potential of decades of experience, the report explores how CPL can make higher education more accessible and…

While federal funding has provided financial benefits to assist the increasing number of veteran students in their academic pursuits, universities have not always been well-equipped to properly support this nontraditional demographic. For this study, the researchers utilized a mixed-methods approach to determine if the enrollment, retention, and…

While federal funding has provided financial benefits to assist the increasing number of veteran students in their academic pursuits, universities have not always been well-equipped to properly support this nontraditional demographic. For this study, the researchers utilized a mixed-methods approach to determine if the enrollment, retention, and…

While federal funding has provided financial benefits to assist the increasing number of veteran students in their academic pursuits, universities have not always been well-equipped to properly support this nontraditional demographic. For this study, the researchers utilized a mixed-methods approach to determine if the enrollment, retention, and…

The purpose of this dissertation is to explore the lived experiences of female United States Army veterans who have enrolled in an academic undergraduate program post-discharge. As higher education continues to be an important transition point for female veterans, understanding the lived experiences of this population provides higher education…

Thanks to the Post-9/11 G.I. Bill, veterans are entering American colleges and universities in numbers not seen since World War II. Very few of today's veterans, however, attend our nation's most selective institutions. Military-connected students constitute about 5% of the total college-going population, but make up only 2% or less of the student…

Prior Learning Assessment (PLA) programs, built on the theories of andragogy, experiential learning, and transformative learning, are posited as a way for students to pursue college credit for their previous professional, personal, and volunteer experiences--via certifications, corporate and military training, non-credit coursework, exams, and…

Supporting adult learners as they complete their postsecondary certificates and degrees is essential to meeting Washington state's educational attainment goals and meeting the employment needs of students and Washington employers. Academic Credit for Prior Learning (ACPL) is awarded when a student's prior learning is assessed and found to be the…

Community college students often hold knowledge from various professional and academic experiences. A challenge for these students, and for their institutions and employers, is how to formally bridge these competencies to support students' efforts to reach their academic and career goals. This issue brief looks at the practice of awarding credit…

While nontraditional students are a growing population in colleges and universities today, their presence can also be seen throughout history. National policies and practices throughout United States history enabled a more diverse population of students to enter higher education, thus increasing the nontraditional student population. In this…