Many community colleges do not have a formal process in place to offer or support a structured gap year option for students who recently graduated from high school, thereby denying those students an educational option that has been recognized as beneficial to many learners. The purpose of this qualitative study was to explore factors that…

High attrition rates in doctoral programs have long plagued the field of higher education. Over the past half century, approximately half of all students who enroll in doctoral program at North American institutions fail to earn their degree (Lovitts, 2001; OECD, 2020; Schneider & Yin, 2011; Sverdlik et al., 2018). The purpose of this study…

Observers of education often assume measuring non-continuation -- or, more colloquially, "drop-out" rates -- among students must be straightforward. In fact, there are numerous different ways to measure the phenomenon of non-continuation that make it challenging to discuss. This paper addresses the following questions regarding…

This study explores the role of student support services in fostering persistence among Some College, No Credential (SCNC) students re-entering higher education, with a specific focus on community colleges in Southern California. As the number of SCNC students continues to rise, understanding the challenges and support systems available to this…

The study was set to investigate the influence of regulatory frameworks for higher education on the decrease of student enrollment in 6 selected private tertiary institutions in Rwanda. This study adopted the quantitative research design. The study involved a sample of 370 students selected from the 6 private universities. The study used…

Students entering into US-based higher educational institutions are electing more to take a gap year, loosely defined as a 6-12-month student-directed experience to pursue personally relevant interests, rather than traditionally matriculate into their institution after high school (Simpson, 2004; White, 2009; O'Shea, 2014; GYA, 2023a). However,…

The population of adult learners with Some College, No Credential (SCNC) has risen over the years to over 40 million individuals. A smaller subset of this population has debt that they owe their institutions directly in addition to state, federal, or private loans. As of 2020, approximately 6.6 million students owed more than $15 billion in…

Summer melt is a national phenomenon that occurs when high school graduates who intend to matriculate into higher education following graduation end up not doing so. This phenomenon is widespread across the country and enables the poverty cycle to continue. Over the last decade, national studies conducted to understand the summer melt phenomenon…

This study sought to respond to the increased number of mature students in social work education and the understudied topic of their experiences. The research deployed semi- structured interviews and thematic analysis to explore the benefits, challenges, and needs of mature students (N = 19) over the age of 30 in a Canadian Bachelor of Social Work…

The high stop-out rate of low-SES students in higher education is a significant challenge, with these students stopping out at nearly triple the rate of their peers. Beyond financial, academic, and psychosocial hurdles, a lower sense of belonging further hinders their success, especially when they attempt to resume their educational journey. This…