Adults returning to higher education is a contemporary phenomenon which is of great interest to those who attend and work in universities, as well as people who have a wider interest in social behaviours. Previously, it had generally been assumed that once a certain age was passed, a person would either have received all of the education which they will need, or they will have embarked on graduate school and begun a career within an educational institution. However, it is possible to observe currently that more and more people are returning to education at several points throughout their life, and long past the age or stage of career development for which a new education was traditionally considered necessary. This essay will consider this phenomenon and provide a series of explanations for it. It will argue that it can be explained through a combination of a lack of job security within the field of work, a wider choice of courses and a generalized view that education is on-going process rather than something which is over and done by the time a person is in their early to mid-twenties.
The past decade has seen a large difference in the way that people relate to the jobs which they do and to the prospect of a future career. Whereas previously it could be widely accepted that one would be able to find a job which would stay roughly the same for life and that there was little need to return to education. This is no longer the case. Many many people currently find themselves in a position of precarious work whereby they occupy positions which are not guaranteed for long periods of time. This means that often people face the long prospect of long periods of unemployment. One solution which many people adopt for this is to return to university, even though they may be siginificantly older than those whom they study with. This may be seen to both something which may fill time during a lull in the job market, and also something which may increase the chances of an individual being able to find meaningful and secure work in the future.
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"Why are Adults Returning to University in Later Life?".
Another reason for adults returning to university is the simple fact that many more public schools and colleges exist which are affordable for people without a large amount of income. This means that people who would previously not have considered going into education, or who did not consider it at the time when they were in their late teens or early twenties are now faced with the opportunity to go into education and to study subjects which they are passionate about. This is surely one possible reason for the increase in adult-education across the country.
I would argue that it is possible to see this second point alongside a generalized shift in attitude towards an idea that education should be considered to a life long pursuit, rather than something that one does at a specific time. This is often backed up by companies who send staff and workers onto courses such as buisness management or other industry related subjects. The past decade has seen a large rise in such courses and in their being taught within a university or college setting. As such, this fact can be seen to be a final factor in the increase in adults returning to, or starting a later than usual, process of adult education.
In conclusion, this paper has sought to explain an increase in the number of adults attending university or college. It has argued that there can be seen to be three primary reasons for this. The first of these is a general lack of job security and in increase in the experience of temporary unemployment, the second is an increase in the amount of affordable education offered to adults in different education and the third is a generalized shift in attitude towards education. Taken together, these three can be seen to offer a plausible explanation for the increase noted at
