Why should European higher education care about the retention of non-traditional students?

TY - JOUR

T1 - Why should European higher education care about the retention of non-traditional students?

AU - Holmegaard, Henriette Tolstrup

AU - Madsen, Lene Møller

AU - Ulriksen, Lars

PY - 2017/1/1

Y1 - 2017/1/1

N2 - Equal access to higher education has for long been a political ambition, however, despite the expansion of the number of students now entering higher education it has not yet been achieved. The present special issue offers insights into the encounter between students from non-traditional backgrounds and higher education. Five individual studies from four countries offer a unique contribution to understand non-traditional students’ risk of dropping out of higher education as more than a question of academic preparation and hence individual deficits. Together the five papers display a variety of analyses of a key issue for the European Higher Education Area: attracting and retaining a wider group of students. The results show how non-traditional students across countries are made up of a complex mosaic of voices. Hence, the special issue makes a call to move away from the stereotypical images of non-traditional students, and to continue analysing the variety, the complexity and diversity of non-traditional students and their encounter with higher education.

AB - Equal access to higher education has for long been a political ambition, however, despite the expansion of the number of students now entering higher education it has not yet been achieved. The present special issue offers insights into the encounter between students from non-traditional backgrounds and higher education. Five individual studies from four countries offer a unique contribution to understand non-traditional students’ risk of dropping out of higher education as more than a question of academic preparation and hence individual deficits. Together the five papers display a variety of analyses of a key issue for the European Higher Education Area: attracting and retaining a wider group of students. The results show how non-traditional students across countries are made up of a complex mosaic of voices. Hence, the special issue makes a call to move away from the stereotypical images of non-traditional students, and to continue analysing the variety, the complexity and diversity of non-traditional students and their encounter with higher education.

UR - http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/1474904116683688

U2 - 10.1177/1474904116683688

DO - 10.1177/1474904116683688

M3 - Journal article

SN - 1474-9041

VL - 16

SP - 3

EP - 11

JO - European Educational Research Journal

JF - European Educational Research Journal

IS - 1

ER -