Are adult students satisfied? A look at undergraduate and graduate data

Since 2000, adult learners (students age 25 and older) have become one of the fastest growing college student populations.  Between 2000 and 2011, their enrollment increased by 41 percent, and it is expected to grow another 14 percent through 2021. Adult students now comprise nearly 40 percent of the total student population.

But how satisfied are adult students with their educational experience? Do they feel the education they receive is valuable? Do they receive enough support from their institutions?

Recent blogs and research reports released by Noel-Levitz have taken a look at the satisfaction levels of traditional students and online learners.  Now we have new data to share about the satisfaction and priorities of graduate and undergraduate adult students.

This year’s National Adult Student Priorities Report includes data from more than 88,000 students at 150 institutions who completed the Adult Student Priorities Survey between fall of 2011 and spring of 2014.  The table below shows the overall satisfaction scores for all adult students along with satisfaction levels of adults in undergraduate programs and with graduate-level students.  The likelihood to re-enroll measurement shows how many would re-enroll at their institution if they had redo their education all over again.

These percentages are higher than the scores for traditional-age students, where the average satisfaction scores at four-year public and private institutions were 56 percent and 58 percent respectively.  However, I like to say that if adult students are not satisfied, they may not be enrolled at all, because they are less likely to invest their limited time with programs they find dissatisfying.

While institutions are doing a relatively good job satisfying their currently enrolled adult students, there are still priorities for improvement.  This year’s report highlights areas of strength as well as areas of challenge (priorities for improvement) for all adult students, as well as separately for undergraduate and graduate students.

The table below reflects how an area like Campus Climate can have both areas of strengths (green items) and areas of challenge (red items) based on the perceptions of students.

On a national level, adult students feel that their institutions have a strong commitment to academic excellence and the staff are caring and helpful.  These would be examples of strengths that individual institutions could celebrate and promote when recruiting new adult students.

Two priority areas for improvement are also identified:

1. Tuition paid is a worthwhile investment. This is a pervasive issue that we find among traditional students at four-year schools as well as with online learners. This item points to the opportunity for institutions of higher education to better communicate the value of the education they are providing and maintain a strong commitment to student success services.
2. I seldom get the “run-around” when seeking information at this institution. This is an area institutions should really work to improve. Considering the limited time that adults may have on campus while they juggle home and work commitments, it makes sense that they would place a priority on reducing run-around. Institutions may also want to explore phone and online run-around issues as part of their improvements as well.

I encourage you to download this year’s report to see how institutions nationally are serving adult learners.  You may also want to consider gathering satisfaction data from your own students with the Adult Student Priorities Survey, so you can have data results that are specific to your institution to guide your own decision making.  If you also serve adult learners who take classes online, the  National Online Learners Priorities Report contains data specific to online learners.

Two upcoming webinars on graduate and adult learners

My colleague Sue Dietrich will be presenting two webinars on enrolling graduate students and adult learners:

• Recruiting Graduate Students in Competitive Times (March 26)
• Increasing College Enrollment Through Adult Learner Programs (April 23)

I am also here to answer any questions you have about student satisfaction assessments and how you can act on your assessment data. Please send me an e-mail and I will respond as soon as I can, or connect with me on Twitter.