This series of Voices of Student Success focuses on adult learners in higher education, the various challenges they face and successful support mechanisms to aid their retention and completion.

Research shows that adults often enter college with a goal in mind, such as a career pivot, further education in their current industry or completion of a degree they previously started,. But returning to the classroom can be challenging, particularly for first-generation students or those who haven’t been in school for a while.

In 2024, Wichita State University launched a college bridge program, the Adult Learner Community and Connections Program, to ease the transition for adult and online learners. The program, part of the university’s “Shocker Pre-Season” series, offers them eight modules of self-paced, online content designed to assist them in their first term at the university.

In the most recent episode of Voices of Student Success, Brett Bruner, assistant vice president for student success and persistence at Wichita State, discusses adult learner pedagogy and the lessons learned in the program’s first year.

Hosted by Inside Higher Ed Student Success Reporter Ashley Mowreader, this episode is sponsored by KI.

Read a transcript of the podcast here.

“Innovation” is one of those buzzwords that means everything and nothing. “Culture” is even harder to pin down. But in this episode of The Key, Inside Higher Ed’s news and analysis podcast, senior editor for special content Colleen Flaherty speaks with two people working hard to foster both on their campuses.

In a panel discussion at the recent Digital Universities US event in Salt Lake City, Colleen spoke with Maricel Lawrence the innovation catalyst at Purdue Global and Kevin Yee special assistant to the provost for AI and director of the Faculty Center for Teaching and Learning at the University of Central Florida about how bottom up leadership, empowering people to try new things and universal design thinking are helping to create a culture where innovation thrives.

This series of Voices of Student Success focuses on adult learners in higher education, the various challenges they face and successful support mechanisms to aid their retention and completion.

Over 820,000 undergraduates are connected to the U.S. military, including those who are actively serving or enlisted in the National Guard, former service members and spouses or dependents of military servicemembers.

The University of Texas at San Antonio, located in Military City USA, serves over 5,000 military-affiliated students, including veterans, service members and their families, in a region that has the largest concentration of military bases in the country.

In this episode, Michael Logan, UTSA’s senior director for veteran and military affairs and U.S. Marine Corps veteran, discusses how his institution supports military-affiliated students through their transition into higher ed and the role of community in student veteran retention.

Hosted by Inside Higher Ed Student Success Reporter Ashley Mowreader, this episode is sponsored by Grammarly.

Read a transcript of the podcast here.