101s & Backgrounders

Today’s Students Returning Adults Factsheet

Adult students make up a growing share of today’s students, including adults returning to school, who are likely to be in their late 20s or 30s.  View the factsheet here.
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Gainful Employment 101

Is higher education worth the investment? While some factors—the cost of attendance and time to earn a degree or credential—are clear, the outcomes students can expect after completing higher learning programs are difficult to determine. Gainful employment is one tool that, if implemented properly, would allow potential students access to the information they need to…
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Today’s Students Mental Health Factsheet

Many of today’s students face mental health challenges while in college, but the COVID-19 pandemic has made matters worse. Check out HLA’s new factsheet to learn more about today’s students’ mental health challenges while in college. View the factsheet here.
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Factsheet: Equity Gaps in Higher Education

There is a significant and persistent disparity in educational attainment between different groups of students. Equity gaps between students of different races and ethnicities often begin in K-12 education—87 percent of white students graduate high school on time, compared to 76 percent of Hispanic and 73 percent of African Americans students. These gaps—the results of…
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101: Distance Education

101: Distance Education

Today’s students—who are more diverse in age, race, and income than any previous generation—are more likely to be older, working, parenting, and may be working part-time or online. Even before the COVID-19 pandemic, distance education was becoming more common. Learn more about distance education and how it is used by today’s students here.
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Distance Education Backgrounder

Even before the COVID-19 pandemic made distance education the new normal, it was steadily becoming more common. Today’s students—many of whom work while in college, are financially independent, or have children of their own—need access to a college education off-campus to pursue higher education in a format that works for them. But there are still…
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FAQ: Distance Education Accreditation and COVID-19 Waivers

FAQ: Distance Education Accreditation and COVID-19 Waivers

Today’s students—37 percent of whom are over the age of 25, a quarter of whom are parents, and 60 percent who work—have been increasingly juggling school with home and work responsibilities over the past decade. As such, students before the pandemic had been turning to online education at increasing rates for flexibility. Now, due to…
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Media Analysis: Today’s Students

In partnership with the Education Writers Association and Whiteboard Advisors, Higher Learning Advocates conducted an analysis of media coverage of Today’s Students. You can view the media analysis deck here.
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