Offers an overview of the concerns and barriers that many adult students face before enrolling in college. Reviews literature on adult students' academic concerns, social and psychological needs, and financial problems. (DMM)

As a subgroup of all students attending junior colleges, adult students have been rarely studied. The number of students over age 23 is increasing because of more leisure time, rising standards of living, increasing interest in education, and demands for specific job training and re-training. This study focuses on adult women students, defined as…

This paper describes the problems and successes of adult working-class women at Staten Island Community College (New York) who have been moved by the aspirations enunciated by the women's movement to enter the college in increasing numbers. Among the problems that such reentering women face in the pursuit of a higher education are ambivalence and…

Despite the growing number of older students (age 50 or over) attending two-year institutions, counseling services relevant to their needs are often overlooked. These needs are especially acute because they often stem from the disengagement of long established social roles, such as the loss of a job through retirement, the loss of loved ones…

Discusses the importance of creating a learning community in the classroom to help stimulate community college student success. Urges teachers to examine teaching methods and modify content and delivery to meet the complex needs of each new community. Urges instructors to encourage cooperation among students and respect diverse talents and ways of…

In 1991, a study was conducted at the Community College of Rhode Island (CCRI) to determine the characteristics of and major problems confronting adult students with English as a second language (ESL). A questionnaire was distributed to the 105 CCRI students enrolled in ESL I, ESL II, and Paragraph Writing for ESL classes, requesting them to…

This study describes the special needs of women returning to school after an interruption for marriage or employment. One hundred-fifty questionnaires were distributed during 1975 at Fresno City College in California; 90 were returned, of which 82 were usable. Eight problems, in order of importance, identified by returning women were: shortage of…

The adult training programs of the Colleges of Applied Arts and Technology of the Ontario community college system are designed to provide adult students with secondary education degrees, commercial training, and technical training. In order to assess affective aspects of these programs, Canadore College developed a 174-item questionnaire and…

As the fourth in a series of reports on a longitudinal study of over 7,000 students who entered 15 California community colleges in Fall 1978, this eight-chapter report profiles the students as of Spring 1980 in terms of: (1) demography, academic progress, and employment status; and (2) their distribution among 18 "prototypes," defined…

Descriptive data about mature, full-time students enrolled in three postsecondary nonuniversity institutes in Saskatchewan, Canada, were gathered. Information was sought about the personal characteristics of these students, about the decision making process they followed when deciding to return to school, and about the difficulties and benefits…

In order to assess the needs and determine the demographic, educational, employment, and enrollment characteristics of the 60-70% of the students attending Jefferson Community College (JCC) who were over 24 years of age, surveys were conducted of faculty and a random sample (N=302) of the 3,160 adult students enrolled during 1976-1977. Response…