Is the Adult Student the New ‘Traditional’ Student?

As written on HigherEdJobs.com: There are many varying definitions of the terms adult learner and non-traditional student. A fact that can be agreed on, however, is that the number of students falling into these categories has been on the rise over the past several years and at most institutions, this demographic outweighs the number of traditional students who enter directly after high school. Are colleges and universities recognizing this change, and what are staff and faculty doing to help adult learners and all students succeed with the increasing pressures of balancing personal and academic lives?

Luckily I have had the pleasure of teaching both in traditional, face to face college classrooms as well as teaching online for a variety of different colleges and university sizes. With the ever changing job market, this also has changed the time of when most students would attend college, usually right after high school. I have seen a change in the student’s ages over the past 10 years. When I started teaching at the higher ed level, most of my students were fresh out of high school. Today, most of my students are older, have families and many have even raised their families and are attending college with their children! It is so wonderful to see but I never thought I would be teaching a mother and child the same course!

For graduate students, many of us are adult students and learners so we juggle our many roles of life. But are we now considered traditional students? Have we put our other life goals and making money first before continuing our educational studies?

Join the conversation! Do you consider yourself an adult student or a traditional student?

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