Nontraditional Students in Public Institutions
Funded by the Lumina Foundation through a grant to the University of Virginia as part of the Emerging Pathways project, this project presents new insights into the retention and graduation of nontraditional students in public institutions.
The purpose of this study is to support policy research by better understanding the variation in retention and graduation by different types of postsecondary students, particularly adult, nontraditional learners, through the use of student unit records collected by states for mandated reporting.
Student unit records about enrollment and completion are used for the first time ever to study nontraditional students, with six years of data collected from six states, representing a combined cohort of half a million first-time, full- and part-time freshmen.
The study examines the impact of student demographics, enrollment behavior, school characteristics, and major on outcomes. The results are broken out by two- and four-year schools and address issues such as transfer, stop outs, co-enrollment, the climate of diversity, adult learner-friendly policies, and the impact of institutional resources. At a time when states are realizing that the best performance of 18 year olds does not give them enough of a competitive strategy, reliance on nontraditional student enrollment is critical. The renewed focus on productivity has moved beyond access to understanding emerging pathways in order to seriously improve the success of women, minorities, adult learners, and other nontraditional students.
- New Measures of Student Success in Public Higher Education. (2009) PDF, 173K
- Nontraditional Student Success in Public Two-year Colleges. (2009) PDF, 169K
- Nontraditional Students in Public Higher Education: A Multi-State, Student Unit Record Study. (2009) PDF, 1.8MB
- SAIR 2008 Presentation: Nontraditional Students in Public Institutions. (2008) PPT, 1187K
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