An increasing number of part-time adult learners have enrolled in master's programmes globally for career advancement and personal growth. The educational and working backgrounds of these part-time master's students are diverse. Their motivations for pursuing master's degrees and continued learning are also varied. We explored part-time master's…

As the number of traditional-aged students steadily declines in the United States, colleges and universities must seek to attract and enroll the large number of adults who have some college but no degree. This research sought to understand how one southern mid-sized institution recruited and enrolled a consistent number of adult learners over…

This qualitative narrative inquiry study explores lived experiences of seven working adult part-time online students, mostly community college transfers, in a Research 1 institution's online degree-completion program. Using in-depth interviews, four key themes are identified: access, engagement, inclusion, and university pride in students'…

Despite the increasing number of non-traditional doctoral researchers, this population's experiences remain largely understudied and their voices unheard. Through in-depth interviews with 24 part-time online doctoral candidates, we explored the perceived facilitators and barriers to academic integration and sense of belonging, as well as how…

As statewide college promise programs continue to develop, emerging equity concerns necessitate interrogating whom programs benefit and how expense funds can be applied. Critical Policy Analysis (CPA) is used in this chapter to understand how statewide promise programs advance or hinder racial equity across eligibility and financial aid support…

The Iowa Department of Education (Department) collects enrollment information from all 15 community colleges. This report summarizes several aspects of community college enrollment including: (1) Students; (2) Student Demographics; (3) Academics; (4) Program Type; (5) Transfer Major Programs; (6) Career and Technical Education and Career Clusters;…

Research on student engagement, study engagement and academic entitlement has followed separate paths. This research examined how the concepts relate to each other among traditional and non-traditional Finnish business students (N = 476). A cluster analysis indicated that students form two clusters. Part-time students, students over the age of 25,…

More students entering into higher education in the United States are choosing to attend two-year colleges, but completion rates at these colleges, especially for nontraditional students, are consistently below 40%. Increased faculty interaction has been studied at four-year colleges as a strategy to increase completion rates and job prospects,…

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…

The purpose of this non-experimental quantitative case study was to compare the academic success of community college students over three academic years (2016-17 through 2018-19) before the onset of COVID-19 based on final grades and the influence of student factors, class size, and faculty characteristics using archival data from selected online…

This study examined the factors that lead to student completion for part-time, post-traditional community college students (PTS). Research identified the environmental experiences and common characteristics of the student population using a sequential, exploratory research design. The qualitative segment of the study utilized a holistic,…

This practice report discusses the development of the Head Start Online MOOC. This initiative targeted flexible learners, defined as adults engaged in part-time or online distance learning, during the initial stages of the study life-cycle. Drawing on the literature, the experiences of major international Online and Distance Learning (ODL)…

While access to higher education (HE) has substantially increased over the past number of years, the evidence suggests that social inequalities continue to be reproduced in terms of course level, field of study and institutional status. This paper examines, through the lens of Social Reproduction Theory, the socio-economic background and HE access…