Back to School: Adult Learners and College Enrollment

Back to School! It's not just for recent high school grads Today's college students are no longer 18-year-old high school graduates enrolled full time and living on campus. Students today are older, more diverse, and have more work and family obligations to balance. Who are today's college students? of today's college enrollments are 39% adults over the age of 25 Not Just for Recent High School Grads 1 out of 4 college students 20% By the year 2020, enrollment of students over 25 is expected to increase by 20%. are older than 30 Did you know? There are more than 7 million adult students College Students and Distance Learning 86% of undergraduates are commuters or distance learners (only 14% attend full time and live on campus) Primary Reasons for Taking a Distance Education Course 34 37.6% My work schedule is heavy and distance education is is the more convenient average age of today's 19.7% Personal circumstances (family, health, etc.) make distance education more convenient online learner Percentage of Students Taking Online Courses by Age 30% 26% 15% Age 15-23 Age 24-29 Age 30+ Distance education is proving to be an ideal solution for working adults seeking an effective and convenient means of earning their degree. Current studies show that students who complete their courses online achieve equal or better academic results when compared with students enrolled in comparable on-campus degree programs. Sources: http://www.nln.org/researchgrants/slides/pdf/AS1011_F27.pdf http://nces.ed.gov/fastfacts/display.asp?id=98 http://nces.ed.gov/programs/digest/d10/tables/dt10_199.asp http://higheredwatch.newamerica.net/sites/newamerica.net/files/policydocs/Cracking_the_Credit_Hour_Sept5_0.pdf http://www.onlineuniversities.com/articles/educators/investigating-the-online-student-body/ http://californiacommunitycolleges.cccco.edu/Portals/0/reportsTB/DistanceEducation 2011 final.pdf http://nces.ed.gov/programs/coe/pdf/coe_dhe.pdf http://www.onlinelearningsurvey.com/reports/goingthedistance.pdf http://sloanconsortium.org/publications/survey/changing_course_2012 The. College NETWORK collegenetwork.com