Participation Profiles of Adult Undergraduate Students in Turkey

Abstract

In recent years, the profile of the student population in higher education has changed and the number of adult students has begun to increase gradually. Considering this change, the need for a comprehensive examination of adult students having undergraduate education in Turkey has arisen. For this reason, this study has been conducted to determine participation dynamics of adult students who decided to take formal undergraduate education at the age of 25 or older in Turkey. In research, firstly, existing higher education policies and practices for adult students have been investigated. Then, in a research group, participation patterns of adult undergraduate students have been examined. The data used in this study was collected from 472 participants in a study group. Participation characteristics such as the reasons for participation, barriers to participation, program preference reasons of adults were investgated in the context of higher education.