The Millennial Adult Learner in Higher Education

Author(s):

Sylvia Chong(presenting / submitting)

Conference:

ECER 2016

Network:

22. Research in Higher Education

Format:

Paper

Session Information

22 SES 09 D, New Perspectives to Learning

Paper Session

Time:

2016-08-25

13:30-15:00

Room:

NM-J104

Chair:

Laura Hirsto

Contribution

The learner demographics of today’s Higher Education (HE) institutions is changing rapidly. HE institutions have a learner profile that is multigenerational. Not only do they encompass a wide age spectrum, learners may be single, married or divorced, full-time employees and they may have left school for years. The largest growing HE population is the working adult learner (Compton, Cox & Laanan, 2006; Finn, 2011). This is significant, as more adults are turning to HE institutions to start, continue or complete their degrees. Many pursue learning to enhance their competitiveness in the workforce, attain a professional requirement and to be enriched intellectually.

Since the 1990’s, the Singapore economy has been shifting from a manufacturing-dominant to a knowledge/information-driven economy (Sidhu, Ho & Yeoh, 2014). This shift, with changing demographic trends and advances in technology, places the country in a position of having to re-educate and retrain its workforce (Gopinathan & Lee, 2011). The Ministry of Education, Singapore, in 2012, diversified and expanded HE pathways (Ministry of Education, 2012). SIM University, catering largely to part-time adult learners, was identified as Singapore’s 6th university. With this recognition, the government launched a range of financial support in terms of bursaries, tuition and subsidised loan schemes for learners in part-time undergraduate SIM University programs (MOE, 2012). At December 31, 2013, there were 13,369 adult students enrolled in SIM University (SIM, 2014).

This influx of adult learners in HE present challenges to SIM University and cannot be ignored. The issue of equitable HE access becomes more important. Singapore, as with other countries and international bodies (e.g. OECD and UNESCO) argue that widening HE access benefits not only individuals, but also the society as a whole. As exposited by Chong, Loh and Babu (2015), adult learners do not have the same learning profile as other learners as their extensive exposure to digital media and technology are likely to influence their cognitive competencies, lifestyle choices as well as their expectations of teaching and learning. This has policy implications on customization of the learners’ learning journey. There is a need to better understand this adult who assumes responsibility for planning, implementing, and evaluating his/her own learning. Unfortunately, research on adult learning is fragmented and inconsistent (Caruth, 2014). Ross-Gordon (2011) came to the conclusion that what was once called non-traditional is metamorphosing into a new normal, with the implicit assertion that many HE institutions are underprepared to meet the needs and interests of the adult learner.

Adult learners have unique developmental and social characteristics when compared to their traditional counterparts in higher education institutions (Reay, 2002). These adult learner characteristics also contribute to different educational goals and focus. As noted by Merriam and Brockett (2007), there is a need to better understand and know the adult who “opts to assume primary responsibility for planning, implementing, and evaluating his/her own learning” (p. 35). Who are these adult learners? What are the implications on the teaching and learning for SIM University? Profiling the adult learner is timely. For purposes of this paper, the demographic profile of 7,539 first year learners from 2013 and 2014 enrolment intakes of SIM University were used to provide an insight of the adult learner in Singapore. The profiles also serve to remind that the HE landscape in Singapore, as with many other countries, is no longer an 18-to-24-year-old cohort. Along with the unfolding of this profile is the need for a coordinated and holistic approach to support adult learners. Thus this paper’s focus is twofold.

To profile the adult learner in Singapore HE
To develop an understanding of the profile variables and their implication on teaching and learning.

Method

The demographic profile of 7,539 first year learners from 2013 and 2014 enrolment intakes of SIM University were used to provide an insight of the adult learner in Singapore. The following tables and figures will be shared. • Table 1: Demographic Profile (Gender, Marital Status, Race) • Figure 1: Age Profile • Table 2: Distribution of Enroled Students who are30 yrs and below (Job Designation) • Table 3: Age Profile of 2013 and 2014 Enrolment by Designation at Enrolment & Mean Years of Work Experience • Figure 2: Distribution of 2013 and 2014 Enrolment by Designation Some of the highlighted enrolment characteristics are: • There are equal proportions of males and female, more than ¾ (78.6%) of the students are single (Table 1). • About 2/3 (67.2%) of are Chinese. This is followed by the Malays, Indians and Eurasian/Others (Table 1). • 86.9% of the adult learners are 35 years or younger. 2909 students in the age range of 23 to 25 years of age (Figure 1). • The adult learners are largely at the start of their careers with an average of 4.61 years of working experience. 25% in this group reported that they in junior to middle management positions, another 26% in non-executive staff positions and 26% in non-managerial/technical professional positions (Tables 2 and 3). 1% are holding senior management positions. • This corroborates with the cross-sectional analysis of the data by the students’ self-reported job designation. Figure 2 shows that a large proportion of the enrolled students are holding more junior level or executive level positions. Close to 77% of the enrolled student population hold the positions of junior to mid-level management, non-executive staff positions and non-managerial/technical professional positions. In addition, most enrolled students holding these positions are younger with their mean age at point of enrolment between 27 to 28 years old (Table 3).

Expected Outcomes

A key finding is that though the adult HE learners are older than the traditional undergraduate, a majority of the Singapore adult learner are young adults, in their mid-twenties to early thirties and in the early stages of their working lives. In an era where many are living and working longer, these millennial learners are repositioning their postsecondary training to be in the labour market for many years. This millennial learners have grown up with the Internet and have a natural aptitude with technologies. Oblinger and Oblinger (2005) suggest that they were born “in or after 1982” before 2000 and have “multiprocessing” capabilities. They are accustomed to talking on the phone, watching TV, doing homework, eating and using the computer all at one time. As adult learners, they use technologies for digital files, access learning portals, perform information searches, and participate in social media to support learning. They are more than just technologically linked, they are connected. Technology is tightly woven into their lives that it is hard for the Millennials to imagine life without it. Working Millennial learners are interested in their career and learning opportunities that will support and enhance their career development (Plageman, 2011). They voluntarily enrol in HE, juggling their learning around other responsibilities. It is not enough just to learn; they want to contribute to their knowledge discovery as they blog and design their websites. They are contributors, creators and partakers of knowledge and information. With easy access to information and images, the creator and consumer roles of learning are blurred. As a form of constructivist learning, the millennial learner constructs knowledge for learning advantage and efficiency. To foster academic success, one must engage them with cooperative learning exercises, empower them as decision makers and allow them to analyze their own learning strategies (Kasworm, 2012).

References

References Caruth, G. D. (2014). Meeting the needs of older students in higher education. Participatory Educational Research (PER), 1(2), 21–35. Retrieved Jan 6, 2016, from http://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ED552755.pdf Chong, S., Loh, W.M. & Babu, M. (2015). The Millennial Learner: A New Generation of Adult Learners in Higher Education. Advances in Scholarship of Teaching and Learning, Vol.2, No.2, 2015. Compton, J. I., Cox, E., & Laanan, F. S. (2006). Adult learners in transition. In F. S. Laanan (Ed.), New directions for student services, No. 114: Understanding students in transition (pp. 73–80). San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass. Finn, D. (2011). Principles of adult learning: An ESL context. Journal of Adult Education, 40, 34–39. Gopinathan, S., & Lee, M. H. (2011). Challenging and co-opting globalisation: Singapore’s strategies in higher education. Journal of Higher Education Policy and Management, 33(3), 287–299. Kasworm, C. E. (2012). US adult higher education: One context of lifelong learning. International Journal of Continuing Education and Lifelong Learning, 5(1), 1–19. Merriam, S. B., & Brockett, R. G. (2007). The profession and practice of adult education: An introduction. San Francisco: John Wiley & Sons, Inc. Ministry of Education (MOE). (2012). Report of the Committee on University Education pathways beyond 2015 (CUEP). Singapore: Author. Retrieved July 6, 2015, from http://www.moe.gov.sg/media/press/files/2012/08/cuep-report-greaterdiversity-moreopportunities.pdf Oblinger, D.G. and Oblinger, J.L. (2005), Educating the net generation, An Educause e-book publication, Retrieved Jan 6, 2016 from: http://www.educause.edu/ir/library/pdf/pub7101.pdf Plageman, P. (2011). Educator, planner and advocate: Higher education for adults in the new millennium. Adult Learning, 22(2), 32-36. Reay, D. (2002). Class, authenticity and the transition to higher education for mature students. The Sociological Review, 50(3), 398-418. Ross-Gordon, J. M. (2011). Research on adult learners: Supporting the needs of a student population that is no longer nontraditional. Peer Review, 13(1), 26-29. Sidhu, R., Ho, K. C., & Yeoh, B. S. (2014). Singapore: Building a knowledge and education hub. In J. Knight (Ed.), International Education Hubs (pp. 121–143). Dordrecht: The Netherlands: Springer. SIM University. (2014). Facts & Figures. Retrieved Jan 6, 2016 from http://www.unisim.edu.sg/about-unisim/Overview/Pages/Facts-Figures.aspx

Author Information

Sylvia Chong (presenting / submitting)

SIM University, Singapore, Singapore

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