It is well established that participation in formal adult education varies by individual background characteristics. However, less attention has been paid to examining inequality in participation as a consequence of policy changes, such as educational expansion. This paper examines the process of tremendous expansion in Swedish Higher Vocational…

This paper investigates why people return to study in their 30s and beyond and upgrade to a higher level qualifications. Some previous research has argued that attitudes formed in childhood, via family background and schooling, continue to shape a person's engagement in learning throughout the adult lifecourse. Psychologists distinguish extrinsic…

Adult students are an important component of the current U.S education landscape. They account for over 40% of the degree-seeking fresh enrollees in the U.S. colleges and according to the U.S. Department of Education, their growth will soon outpace that of traditional students. Adult students have also received considerable attention in higher…

This article describes a model that can be used to analyze student enrollment data and can give insights for improving retention of part-time students and refining institutional budgeting and planning efforts. Adult higher-education programs are often challenged in that part-time students take courses less reliably than full-time students. For…

As part of the impetus to increase and widen participation in the UK, and in Scotland in particular, there has been considerable effort put into creating links between Further Education Colleges (FECs) and Higher Education Institutions (HEIs). However, because no unique identifier is used to track students between the two sectors, little is known…