The Enrollment of Senior Students - Essay Example

? Journal Critique: Adult Learner’s Enrollment Summary of the problem Kimmel, Gaylor, Grubbs and Hayes (2012) examines the employment, income, motivation and barriers facing adult learners (age 25 and over) enrolled for non-traditional degree programs designed for adult learners. It offers a comparative analysis of a 2004-2005 study when the economy was “good” with another one done in during 2010 economic “hard times”. Their study was motivated by the recessionary pressures being impacted by unemployment, rising consumer prices and a tight credit market which have made higher education more essential but less affordable at the same time. Traditional colleges have been forced to either add online programs in their systems and/ or focus on recruitment and retention efforts for adult learners. More working individuals are increasingly finding it hard to enrol in college where more opportunities are being created and due to global competition. At 2004 when the initial study was done, annualized U.S. unemployment rates stood at 5.5%, while the rate when the second survey was done were at 9.6%. Inflation had grown from an average of 2.7% in 2004, hover above 3% in the three years preceding the second survey. Between the two periods of study, college fees had been recorded to have risen significantly in all forms of higher education institutions the highest been a 24% increase at public four-year colleges. The availability of federal aid had also declined between the two periods due to the economic crisis. The kind of programs considered were specific to the learners and due to the work responsibilities most classes were in an evening setting. The items compared were classified into economic, motivators to enrollment or barriers to the education. The economic factors included part-time employment, full-time employment, and household income. The motivators to enrolment considered were desire for higher pay, desire to retain the current job, desire to change work field while the barriers included concerns of repaying loans and availability of scholarships. 2. Hypothesis The researchers hypothesised that: 1. The level of part-time employment would be higher among the 2010 students than 2004 respondents. 2. The level of full-time employment will have dropped in 2010 as compared to in 2004. 3. The 2010 students will indicate a higher household income than the 2004 students. 4. The 2010 will be motivated by a higher assurance of pay increase as compared to the 2004 students. 5. There will be a higher desire to keep currents jobs amongst 2010 students than was the case in 2004. 6. The desire to change career fields will be higher among 2010 students than among 2004 students. 7. There will be a higher desire to repay loans among the 2010 students than for 2004 students. 8. Scholarships availability for adult students will be a higher concern for the 2010 students than among 2004 students. 3. Methods 3.1 Participants The 2004-2005 survey targeted adult students attending six different private colleges and one public university located in four U.S. states and one Canadian province. A total of 683 students were reached in by the survey. The 2010 survey on the other hand attracted 530 respondents from three private institutions who were reached both in person and online. The number of students represented in the survey comprised at least 30% of the total number of adult learners at the institution. The study assumed the same general characteristics of students surveyed during the two times and sameness of the institutions where samples were drawn. 3.2 Variables The research by Kimmel, Gaylor, Grubbs and Hayes (2012) was a qualitative kind of research. The study involved a comparison of factors influencing the ennoblement of adult learners into colleges and therefore the variables may neither be described as dependent vs. independent or predictor vs. criterion. The variables in the research are dependent on the economic and barriers to adult education ennoblement which is not a variable in the research. The study aims at describing the situations regarding the adult education at the two periods of time. 3.2 Procedure A research design questionnaire was designed in 2004 focussing on the factors affecting return to college by adult learners which included the economic factors, motivators and barriers as indicated in the problem statement. This survey instrument was instrument was developed guided by the factors identified to be defining the problem as well as by administering open ended questionnaires to adult learners both in an undergraduate program and another group in a graduate accelerated business program. The students were asked to list five key motivators and five significant barriers in pursuing their college education. A questionnaire containing 51 items was developed in which students had to use a likert-style scale rating of fifteen motivators and sixteen barriers was then administered to the 683 participants of the 2004-2005 survey. A provision for rating the motivators and barriers as not applicable was allowed. Other information included in the questionnaire was institutional identification and level of study, and demographic information which were structured following the U.S. Census Bureau standards. Respondents were further asked to give any additional motivations or barriers encountered in their decision to enrol in college. The same questionnaire design was used in 2010 with only slight modification to cater for the online survey. 4. Results Statistical methods were used to analyse the qualitative data collected from the questionnaires. Two types of data had been acquired: Likert scale interval measured variables and the nominal and ordinal scale (yes/ no) measurements. Independent t-tests were applied to the variables measured by interval level Likert scales to test the hypotheses regarding the means differences between the two period’s samples. This was also accompanied by F tests to test the homogeneity of variance. To test the differences for the nominal and ordinal scale measurements, Chi-square tests for independence was used. Significant differences between the two groups was evident on all items: full-time employment, part-time employment and household income; desire for pay rise, desire to move into a new career, desire to retain a current job; concerns about repaying student loans, and the lack of availability of scholarships. Apart from the hypotheses regarding full-time and part-time employment all the other hypotheses were supported. Kimmel, Gaylor, Grubbs and Hayes (2012) found that the 2004 group had a significantly more likelihood of indicating part-time employment as compared to the 2010 group. Almost 22% of 2004 respondents showed part-time employment indication as compared to only 15.9% of 2010 respondents. Regarding full-time employment, Kimmel, Gaylor, Grubbs and Hayes (2012) found that, slightly above 69% of the 2004 respondents indicated full-time employment as compared to 80.7% among 2010 respondents. This fails to support the hypothesis that the level of full-time employment will have dropped in 2010 as compared to in 2004. Whereas the 2010 group indicated higher likelihood for full-time employment, the group still reported significantly lower household’s income than the 2004-2005 group. About 69% of 2010 group respondents revealed household income Read More