New Book Chronicles 50 Adult Learner “Comeback” Stories

When a student enrolls in college for the first time, they typically expect to study, graduate and get a good job. But sometimes life gets in the way: Across the country, more than 43 million adults have attended some college but, for one reason or another, didn’t stay long enough to earn a degree or credential.

That data on adult learners doesn’t tell the full story, argue Bridgett R. Strickler and Mathew J. Bergman. Their new book, Beyond the Degree: Stories of Adult Learner Comebacks and What They Teach Us (Center for Academic Innovation Publishing), aims to fill in the gaps.

In recent years, colleges and nonprofits have begun making targeted attempts to re-enroll those who stopped out or who had never enrolled in college before. Strickler and Bergman say that while many of those efforts have proven effective, higher education leaders would benefit from expanding their idea of what a college student looks like.

To help leaders achieve that—and to help adult learners see that going back to college is possible—Bergman and Strickler interviewed 50 adult learners from around the country and chronicled their “comeback” stories. Through the interviews, they identified their subjects’ greatest strengths as returning students, and suggested how colleges might address the common challenges returning adults face in and out of the classroom.

“In the absence of visible examples, many adults assume their experience is singular or disqualifying,” wrote Strickler and Bergman, both of the nonprofit Center for Academic Innovation, which advocates for adults in higher education. “Many carry internal narratives shaped by silence and stigma about not finishing. Without often realizing it, these unfinished stories harden into identity and shape what adults believe is still possible.”

Strickler and Bergman spoke with Inside Higher Ed about the challenges and benefits of accommodating adult learners. The interview has been edited for length and clarity.

Q: You write that we have a lot of data on adult learners, but what matters more for them is the question of “Does this make sense for me?” Talk to me about why you say “data needs story.”

Bergman: Oftentimes adults are viewed as a bit of a homogenous group. That is a challenge with adult learners, who I sometimes say are 25-to-alive because people are going back as late as their 80s or finishing something they started 20 or 30 years ago.

The idea that we would market or orient certain messages to adults just doesn’t work because of how unbelievably diverse this group is and how unique and different their lives are.

Strickler: As you go through the adult learner stories, you’ll see how diverse their backgrounds and reasons for returning to school are. Patterns start to emerge that we think are really important to round out what the data shows about adult learners.

To center their voices is to think less about the transactional nature of education and to think more about the bigger “why”—why the person is returning now, why at this moment and also what the journey means to them.

When they do go back, they discover things about themselves that change their identity and then have a profound ripple effect out into their community and their family. There can be a generational impact of making that choice to return to college.

Q: What does belonging actually look like for adult students? And what are colleges doing—intentionally or unintentionally—to make adult learners feel like they don’t belong?

Strickler: Often in higher ed, we talk a lot about student belonging and how that is a factor in people being able to persist and complete their degrees. It’s no less true for adults. But what we found is the idea of belonging starts way before they sign up for classes. It’s something they experience in every interaction they have with the institution. The question they’re weighing is: Is my presence legitimate on campus and in the classroom? Small interactions even before they get to campus or talk to anybody can legitimize or delegitimize that sense.

Adult learners don’t get involved on campus in the same way traditional-age students do—they don’t necessarily have time for that. But they are paying attention to the signals from staff and faculty that tell them, you know, if they matter, if anyone notices if they’re not here. Because they’re not going to enroll and then their life suddenly gets calm; it gets much more complicated in a lot of ways. So when life shows up, and it always will, does anybody understand the weight of all of the responsibilities they’re carrying, not just classroom responsibilities?

Bergman: They just want to have it be understood that there are competing influences in their lives. Those interactions with faculty and staff, they’re fewer than if they were joining clubs and spending more time on campus. When they have an online class or an evening class or some interaction with a staff member in the evening or late afternoon, those are key and instrumental in how they might feel a sense of belonging or how they might feel they fit in at the institution.

So much of our evolution as an industry has been geared toward first-time, full-time freshmen and how we’re going to accommodate them with clubs and organizations and activities and create that sense of community. That’s not as easy when a person doesn’t have as many interaction points.

Q: What do you think are the biggest misconceptions about adult learners and what do colleges get wrong based on their assumptions?

Bergman: The misconception from institutions, oftentimes, is that they failed, they couldn’t hack it previously, they left because they were partying too much or doing whatever the first time around, they have some kind of deficiency or they need developmental education. And while this may be true in some cases, these are people who have experienced life, who held jobs, who have advanced themselves in their community and in the workforce. They have so many skills and abilities and if institutions acknowledge all they bring to the table, adult learners feel more welcome.

They can say, “I am an advanced impressive professional who is a mid-level executive,” or “I’m working my way up,” or “I have ascended and I have this business.” And they can show themselves they are entirely different human beings than the first time or if they never went to college.

On the other side, prospective adult learners have the misconception that institutions are what they used to be when you had to stand in line to register or you had to attend every class in person between 8 a.m. and 5 p.m. But that is dwindling rapidly because we are seeing so much media around the unique opportunities with evening, online, weekend and hybrid options.

They are so unbelievably resilient when they are seen, heard and acknowledged because they’ve had so much life experience and so much more than 18- to 21-year-olds, who don’t have the context to draw from. When we introduce really complex concepts and theoretical frameworks to adults, they have experiences and context to draw from to make connections and have deeper-level learning as well. That is a magical point for anyone who has ever taught adults. It’s amazing what level of commitment they will put forth to prove they belong.

Strickler: The biggest misconception is accidentally framing adult learners through a deficit lens. I don’t think people are doing that on purpose, but you have to recognize the wealth of experience the person is bringing to the classroom. That’s one of the biggest hurdles.

The reality is that they’re bringing perhaps decades of professional experience and expertise. Life has knocked them around a bit by this point. They’re overcomers, they’re problem solvers, they’re parents, they have real-life responsibilities.

Q: You write that trust is not restored by what institutions say, it is restored by what learners experience. How can institutions rebuild that trust with adult learners?

Strickler: We need to listen to the voices of adult learners. They have the answers to what works and what doesn’t work. And institutions should intentionally pay attention to their voices in a more systematized and rigorous way. We can learn a lot just by looking at the data, but the students themselves are going to give nuance to that data.

We didn’t collect the stories simply because they’re inspiring, we collected them because they can show institutions what is working for persistence, belonging, identity and personal transformation. I don’t have a cookie cutter approach for how you do that, but listen to learners and you will learn what’s working and what’s not working.

Bergman: Number one is to create a debt forgiveness program. Find people within your repository of people who have stopped out and initiate a debt forgiveness program to reconnect those individuals. We cannot reconnect every single student with large amounts of debt, but for people with small amounts of debt, if those were even forgiven incrementally or if a program existed to reconnect that person, they’re ready.

Number two is credit for prior learning. That is key in the evolution of serving adults. If we acknowledge and value what they bring, that it is both college level and credit worthy, we will attract more students and we will graduate more students because they will be accelerated into understanding they do belong.

Number three, make more policies that create access, have some evening opportunities for them to connect with you.