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A nation of students - adult education

American Demographics - August 1, 1996

Once upon a time, college classes were filled with recent high school graduates who wanted to continue their education before hitting the real world. For many, college was a four-year, all-expenses-paid getaway from parents and hometowns. It was an opportunity to form relationships, join clubs and sports teams, and survive dormitory or fraternity living. Graduate school followed for the more ambitious. After graduation, the only remaining college connections were reunions, home coming weekends, and constant solicitations for contributions.

Times have changed. Nearly half of college and university students pursuing degrees now attend on a part-time basis--6.6 million in 1993, up from fewer than 3 million in 1970. The number of full-time students grew just 38 percent over the same period. Older part-time students, particularly women, kept higher education enrollment stable even while the traditional college-age population suffered a temporary decline because of the babybust generation.

Yet these totals don't include the vast numbers of people involved with continuing education on a less formal basis. "Colleges and universities can no longer be something you go to for four years, and that's it," says Kay Kohl, executive director of the National University Continuing Education Association in Washington, D.C. "Lifelong education is what's required today." Many people share her views, judging by the 76 million adults aged 16 and older who participated in one or more adult-education activities during the year preceding the 1995 National Household Education Survey conducted by the National Center for Education Statistics. This amounts to 40 percent of the nation's adult population.

Adult-education participants are most likely to take work-related and personal development courses. Smaller numbers are involved with university credential programs, English as a second language, adult basic education, and apprenticeship or on-the-job training. The more education people have, the more they want. College graduates sign up for adult education at nearly twice the rate of those who never went to college, and more than triple the rate of high school dropouts.

This explosion of interest in extended learning is like manna from heaven for educators. It's a gift that will keep on giving, thanks to the characteristics of the back-to-school crowd. Its fastest-growing segment happens to be among the nation's most affluent and fastest-growing age group. Nearly half of 35-to-54-year-olds took adult-education courses in 1995, up from just 17 percent in 1984. Older people are hitting the books, too; one in five people aged 55 and older took at least one class in 1995.

THE NEED FOR ONGOING EDUCATION

American academic institutions have offered adult education since the land-grant college days of the 19th century. Contrary to their British predecessors who focused on Great Books in literature, American educators have always had a more utilitarian approach. Agriculture and small-business classes dominated early course lists. Later, evening colleges formed to accommodate the population's shift from farm work to factory-based jobs. And the focus has always been and still is on job-related skills. "The luxury of self-enrichment courses, especially for midlife and younger people, is just not there," says Kohl. "The economy won't permit it. Their first concern is staying employable."

How important to that laudable goal is education? Vital. The typical high school graduate earned an average of $18,700 in 1992. Compare that with the average college graduate's earnings of $32,600. Estimated over their working lives, the average high school graduate can expect to bring in $821,000 in current dollars. The lifetime take for a college graduate is substantially higher: $1.4 million. Throw in a professional degree in law or medicine, and expected lifetime earnings soar to $3 million.

But college means more than making more money. It can mean the difference in getting a job at all. Three in four jobs today require postsecondary education, according to some estimates. The number of Americans holding college degrees has tripled in the past 25 years from 12 million to 37 million, and the share of adults who are college graduates has doubled from 11 percent to 22 percent. In addition, because of rapid changes in the way the world does business, higher education is becoming more necessary in keeping jobs and keeping up with them. "People who got master's degrees in business ten years ago probably didn't take a course on globalization, information systems, or change management," says Stanley Gabor, dean of the School of Continuing Studies at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore. "Even if they are working, they need to come back to school."

Ten years is more than a lifetime in some fields. The half-life for knowledge in the electrical engineering field is five years; for computer sciences, two-and-a-half years. It's increasingly difficult for many people to kid themselves that four years of traditional "front-loaded" education will suffice for an entire career. Just ask the victims of this decade's downsizing. It used to be that when someone lost a job in manufacturing or even management, they could rest assured of finding a similar position elsewhere. Now they're less likely to find an acceptable substitute. This broadens the need for continuing education beyond getting and keeping a job to boning up for an entirely new career.

NONTRADITIONAL SITES AND SCHEDULES

Continuing education is about location, location, and location. More than half of adult part-time students surveyed by The College Board in 1986 reported that location was the primary factor influencing their choice of institution. Another 18 percent ranked it second. About 40 percent pointed to the curriculum as their first or second choice; 30 percent cited cost; and 20 percent singled out academic quality.

Academic institutions have responded to the convenience factor by opening up centers in office buildings near students' jobs and homes. In 1982, 90 percent of course enrollments at Johns Hopkins University were limited to the main campus. The school now has four off-campus locations, and the main campus hosts just 25 percent of the total 4,500-person continuing education enrollment. "If we had stayed at the main campus, I don't think we would have seen any growth," says dean Gabor. Nationwide, nine in ten off-campus enrollees attend on a part-time basis.

Some educators get even closer to students. In California's Silicon Valley, hightech workers spend long hours at their workstations. They are in constant need of upgraded skills, yet few have time to fight traffic across the valley to a college or university. But if they work for National Semiconductor in Sunnyvale, their courses are no further away than an onsite education center called, appropriately enough, National Semiconductor University. Santa Clara University is among the institutions that provide faculty and course materials. "They're buying education from us just as they would buy computer chips from a manufacturer," says Terry Shoup, dean of engineering at Santa Clara University. "They're taking advantage of local suppliers." His department offers a master's program in electrical engineering to about 20 National Semiconductor employees. In two-and-a-half years, they'll earn the same accredited degree as other students without ever visiting the campus in person.

Physical proximity is not the only convenience issue facing adult students. Weekday on-site classes would be impossible for many workers even if the teacher lectured from the neighboring cubicle, for one simple reason; they're too busy working to study. The continuing-education business is rife with odd hours. Because part-time students often have to work around full-time job schedules, they want early-morning and evening classes. As a result, campuses are hopping just after dawn. By the time David Letterman comes on TV in the wee hours, their parking lots have just emptied.

Weekends aren't sacred, either. Institutions such as Weekend College at Holy Names College in Oakland, California, operate solely for people who can't squeeze another minute from their weekdays. At Weekend College, about 400 tireless students finish their workweek, then come to classes every other Friday night for three hours and all day Saturday. For those who've already accrued some college credits, it might take two years of this grueling schedule to earn a degree. For those without prior experience, it may take more than four years.

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