Adult learners require supports and services to help them successfully transition into taking on the demands and expectations of college students. Transition programs have grown in popularity as a means to aid adult learners as they transition to higher education. Unfortunately, previous research on adult learner participation in transition…

In response to the poor performance of students in 2007 who had used a Certificate IV to meet minimum entry requirements, The University of Notre Dame Australia, Fremantle campus, developed a specific intervention. A compulsorily-required "primer" course was developed and taught by a staff member with extensive experience in both…

What does the OECD have to say about the state of education today? What are the main OECD messages on early childhood education, teacher policies and tertiary education? What about student performance, educational spending and equity in education? OECD work on these important education topics and others have been brought together in a single…

Adult students, whether new or returning to higher education, experience a unique set of transition challenges. This chapter highlights the barriers facing adult students and offers ways to overcome them. For many adult students, returning to college and fulfilling their goals is much like building a house of cards. In order to be successful, each…

This article presents empirical research exploring adult students' transition to higher education (HE) through a program designed to enable that transition. Wenger's Communities of Practice theory has been applied to informal adult learning by Merriam, Courtenay, and Baumgartner (2003), who suggested its potential for understanding formal…

This compendium of abstracts of papers presented at a conference on student transition concentrates on three major student transitions: freshman, transfer, and senior. Each abstract provides a succinct statement of the paper as well as name and contact information of the presenter. Included among the 67 titles are the following: "Personal,…

Given that adult students need an introductory learning experience, critical features of a learning process and components of a successful curriculum are presented. Adults need an opportunity for a realistic self-appraisal of their potential as adult learners. (Author/MLW)

Australia's Queensland Education Department and Central Queensland University (CQU) jointly developed a pilot program, called the Tertiary Awareness Programme Pilot (TAPP), to ease the transition of students advancing from Queensland's Glenmore State High School to the university. Unlike most previous transition-type courses, the TAPP relied…

The Leeds Under-Employed Graduates project was developed to assist higher education (HE) graduates living or working in Leeds, England, who encountered difficulty in establishing themselves in the local labor market. The main project activities were as follows: (1) services for graduates (including graduate career development workshops, assistance…

To ensure reliable, accurate, and timely data, which are necessary to monitor the progress of education in the United States, Congress has mandated that the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) produce an annual report, "The Condition of Education." This year's report presents 59 indicators of important developments and trends…