Nontraditional students are a rapidly growing population in universities and educational institutions. These students require specialized solutions and considerations as they face a number of difficulties traditional students do not. Further study is needed to truly comprehend this population’s needs and challenges and to develop and implement institutional-level changes to reduce their rate of attrition and increase their academic success. Meeting the Needs of Nontraditional Undergraduate Students has the potential to impact the field of adult higher education and nontraditional students by advancing and further honing already identified differences between nontraditional and traditional students. The book also considers tools and techniques to address these students’ requirements to meet their educational goals. Covering topics such as gender, stressors, and flexible learning, this reference work is ideal for administrators, school faculty, academicians, scholars, practitioners, instructors, and students.

The purpose of this study was to understand, through nontraditional student perspectives, how institutional practices of postsecondary proprietary schools may influence the success of moderately to highly nontraditional students. The study was undertaken for these reasons: (a) A large and growing number of higher education students are nontraditional, putting them at higher risk of not reaching their educational goals; (b) proprietary schools represent a growing segment of higher education that is experiencing documented success with student outcomes; and (c) given increasing accountability expectations, community colleges may be able to learn from proprietary school successes. The research design used an interpretive social science philosophical approach and the method of hermeneutic phenomenology. Six students from one proprietary school were interviewed in order to understand: (a) what meanings they ascribed to the term, "college success," (b) what school practices they found to be most relevant to that success, and (c) how they felt these practices contributed to their success. Data emerging from the interviews were analyzed to show how participants' nontraditional characteristics informed their meanings of college success and how the proprietary school practices were related by participants to those meanings. Career Tech practices that were reported to contribute to participant success were career services and admissions, knowledgeable and helpful instructors, and informational meetings. The analysis of participant descriptions pointed to a complex, evolving student population who view college as a personal process and require the connectivity and continuity that a relationship with the institution can provide. The following are among the seven insights drawn from the study: [1] Participants held personal, as well as practical, meanings of college success. [2] Having a knowledgeable instructor who applied explicit teaching methods was important to participants. [3] Practices considered most relevant to participants were highly integrated into the college routine. Given these insights and related research, the study offered implications for community college practitioners tasked with facilitating the success of nontraditional students, including the need to look beyond statistics to take students' characteristics and meanings of college success into account when setting practice. Doing so may not only address what is important to students, but may positively impact traditionally measured outputs such as retention and graduation.

"This volume ... explores the emergence of the nontraditional doctoral degree, the characteristics of the nontraditional doctoral student, faculty concerns, program innovation, and unique programs at four institutions. Both scholars and practitioners will find it an interesting and engaging introduction to the topic."--Publisher.

In this volume, we examine the ways student services professionals in institutions of higher education can best meet the needs of adult learners. Most of the discussion here is situated in four-year colleges and universities, although we recognize that community colleges play a large role in the higher education of adults. However, we made the decision to focus on four-year and post-graduate institutions because we believe that these institutions often are focused on traditional-aged students despite growing adult enrollments, and are most in need of guidance about how to serve this ever-growing population. Students in higher education often are defined as "adult learners" or "non-traditional students" if they are 25 twenty-five years of age or older, and, more significantly, if they have taken on what we consider adult roles and responsibilities, such as caring for children and other family members, working full-time, or participating heavily in community activities. Adult students typically are not focused on campus life in the same way that younger, "traditional-aged" students are. Therefore, our theories of the importance of the campus experience outside the classroom to student development usually do not hold for adults. Yet, adults can and do learn and develop through their engagement in formal higher education. Adults bring experiences and wisdom into the classroom, and receive a learning experience that informs their own professional and personal practices. This is the 102nd issue of the quarterly journal New Directions for Student Services.

Focusing on non-traditional students in higher education institutions, this new book from renowned scholar John Levin examines the extent to which community college students receive justice both within their institution and as an outcome of their education.