College-in-prison programs are positioned to expand substantially under the reinstatement of Pell Grant eligibility for people in prison. While this change will enable more students who have been systemically excluded from higher education to attend college, degree completion is rare during incarceration and post-release. Student perspectives can…

As student enrollment in colleges across the United States continues to diversify, teaching and learning practices must keep pace with demographic shifts. The growing majority of today's college student body, dubbed post-traditional learners, is older, racially and ethnically diverse, more experienced in work and life, and stretched by competing…

Prior research has shown that students from lower socio-economic backgrounds are less likely to graduate. We examine if this can be explained by background-specific pathways into higher education. Many students in Germany enter higher education with a vocational qualification and prior vocational qualifications occur more often among students from…

Higher education opens doors to job enhancement and economic benefits to adult learners. Despite facing multiple barriers such as life-work-school time conflicts and financial constraints, adult learners continue to seek higher education and certifications. Rural employers also benefit from supporting degree completion or job-specific…

In a 2023 report by the National Student Clearinghouse, the "some college, no credential" population stood at 40.4 million in 2021, up 3.6 percent from a year earlier. Of this population, more than half (21 million, 52%) were 25 or older at the time of their last enrollment. One solution to this reality is to reengage this population and…

Postgraduate transitions rarely feature in literature and are scarcely acknowledged in practice, owing to assumptions about competence. This diverse group are often multimembers studying in alternative modes to cope with wide-ranging demands. Despite their contributions to society and the economy, issues concerning fitness for purpose within…

This study explored the journeys of Formerly Incarcerated Latino Men (FILM) who are turning to higher education as a reentry support for their lives after being released from prison. Offering programs like higher education during reentry is not just about creating new paths and opportunities, something higher education already does for many. The…

Pell eligibility for incarcerated people is a great rehabilitative opportunity, but several challenges remain. This article recaps five of the issues identified by the original research articles in this special issue. It also considers how solutions proposed in these studies may be beneficial across a variety of these issues and gathers…

In this report, AIR shares key findings about postsecondary enrollment decision-making experiences of adult learners of color. This report serves as our main study report, encompassing the range of topics we explored; an important goal of this project was to shed light on new issues or ideas, including those that might spark experimentation with…

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…

Colleges and universities recruit student veterans and spend $10.2 billion a year on GI Bill benefits; however, student veterans rarely receive degrees. This descriptive research study explored the experiences of student veterans during their transition from the military to higher education institutions. A qualitative descriptive approach was…

The rapid worldwide expansion of enrolment in higher education (HE) has led to greater diversity among students, with more first-generation learners, HE returnees, and disadvantaged groups. Yet, inequalities in participation persist and have worsened during the COVID-19 pandemic. The implementation of flexible learning pathways (FLPs) can help HE…

Reentry programs are designed to help returning citizens successfully reenter society following their incarceration. Recidivism is a complex phenomenon, but research has shown certain practices and policies can reduce the tendency to reoffend. There is a need for continued development of evidence-based programs to reduce recidivism and social…

The purpose of this dissertation study was to research the experience of nontraditional adult learners enrolled in an online program years after completing a degree in a traditional, brick-and-mortar institution. In the context of this study, a nontraditional student was a learner with a delayed start to a terminal degree after undergraduate work.…

We ask whether patterns of racial/ethnic and socioeconomic stratification in educational attainment are amplified or attenuated when we take a longer view of educational careers. We propose a model of "staged advantage" to understand how educational inequalities evolve over the life course. Distinct from cumulative advantage, staged…