According to the National Center for Education Statistics (2017), the adult student population between 2015 and 2027 is projected to increase by an additional 31%, making students over the age of 25 years the largest cohort on college campuses. Adult students balance living, learning, and earning, which can lead to higher attrition rates due to…

Despite efforts in Ireland to increase the number of part-time students in Higher Education, there was limited growth over twenty years 1997-2017. Part-time featured in widening participation strategies; however, this mode of learning has orientated towards employability. Retention of part-time students remains a problem for Higher Education. This…

A rapid increase of nontraditional learners enrolling in online education has resulted in the need for further research on the persistence of highly nontraditional students in online settings. As the enrollment of nontraditional students in online courses continues to grow, instructors face challenges with implementing effective course content and…

A collaborative project of several Quebec universities, this study investigates nontraditional student withdrawal from undergraduate accounting programmes. A nontraditional student is older than 24, or is a commuter or a part-time student, or combines some of these characteristics. Univariate and multivariate analyses of student dropout factors…

One third of undergraduate students enrolled in U.S. colleges and universities are considered nontraditional as defined by the single criterion of being aged 25 years and older. Nontraditional students have significantly lower graduation rates than traditional students. Using a role theory perspective this mixed-methods study examines the factors…

The prominence of discourse on postsecondary degree completion, student persistence, and retention has increased in the national dialogue. Heightened attention to college completion rates by the federal government and pressure to tie state funding to performance metrics associated with graduation rates are catalysts for the discussion.…

Texas Guaranteed Student Loan Corporation (TG) provides critical support to schools, students, and borrowers at every stage of the federal student aid process--from providing information on how to pay for a higher education including financial aid options, to facilitating successful loan repayment after graduation. This 2016 issue of "State…

Student retention has become one of the most significant issues facing higher education. Countless hours and considerable amounts of money have been spent in an attempt to determine why some students leave college and while others persist. Previous retention studies have focused primarily on traditional students from four-year, residential…

A qualitative, hermeneutic phenomenological study conducted through interviews with 20 non-traditional (NT) Hispanic/Latino female part-time community college students and located at an urban community college in southern New Jersey explored for factors of persistence and discontinuation. Six themes emerged. Theme 1: Institutional persistence…

"The Condition of Education" summarizes important developments and trends in education using the latest data available. The 2002 edition included a special analysis that describes nontraditional undergraduates in terms of their demographic characteristics, enrollment patterns, ways of combining school and work, participation in distance education,…

A discussion of the trend toward part-time enrollment in higher education in Great Britain looks at part-time student characteristics and preparation, the relative enrollment rates for institution types, progress and failure data, and academic achievement in degree programs. (MSE)

The ability of investment theory to account for intent and behavior of 421 part-time, working community-college students concerning departure from or persistence at college was studied. The contribution of investment to institutional persistence, and a framework for the departure decision process among nontraditional college students are…

Findings of this analysis of the effect of selected variables on attrition in the introductory course of the National Open University of Venezuela suggest that noninstitutional variables accounted for the largest proportion of variance of student completion. Counseling and course redesign are recommended to enhance student motivation to complete…

A study was conducted at Miami-Dade Community College (MDCC) to determine the extent to which the college's Associate in Arts (AA) degree graduates possessed the characteristics of "nontraditional" students (e.g., older, employed, married, or attending on a part-time or stopout basis). A random sample of 400 AA graduates was drawn from the 2,829…

The 2005 "Community College Survey of Student Engagement," entitled "Engaging Students, Challenging the Odds" reflects responses from 133,281 students attending 257 colleges in 38 states. It gathers objective and relevant data about students' experiences at their colleges and presents this data to community colleges so they can better understand…