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Adult Students: A Priority Revisited
By Sandy Shugart
When I began my career as a senior staff member in
higher education back in the early 1980s, the adult learner was all the
rage. The innovation-based economy, the "up-skilling" of nearly every
occupation by technology, the need to retrain periodically for several
careers in a lifetime, and the predicted dearth of traditional-aged
students were accepted as axiomatic and fundamental forces shaping the
future of higher education. Now, nearly 30 years later, it seems timely
to ask several questions about the way these things have, in fact,
developed, how we in higher education have adapted, and how these issues
and others may shape our approaches to mature students going forward. .
. .
Excerpted from the winter 2008 issue of The
Presidency. To subscribe to the magazine, please call (301) 632-6757,
or order online through ACE’s
bookstore.
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