Persistence among adult students enrolled in business- and ministry-related tracks of degree-completion programs.

Abstract

In this study, 22 former students of degree-completion programs offered by three Christian colleges were interviewed using a qualitative approach. This study addressed the questions of their motivations for participation, the triggering events that led to their enrollment, the structure and atmosphere of degree-completion programs that contributed to their persistence or non-persistence, the difficulties they overcame, and finally, the motivations for persistence. The study demonstrated that participants shared many characteristics with the general population of adult learners in the areas of motivations for enrollment and persistence. They differed from the general population in the strong effect that their faith had on motivations for enrollment and particularly on motivations for persistence. These participants placed a great deal more emphasis on personal fulfillment and faith as motivations for both enrollment and persistence than on career-related motivations. Although most of the participants experienced financial pressures because of the costs of their schooling, except for one case, the lack of finances did not stop them from enrolling or persisting.

Adult degree-completion programs have burgeoned in recent times, particularly in private colleges. Adapting their programs to the specificities of adult learners, they attract ever increasing numbers of people who have been out of college for a length of time and who now want to obtain their college degree. Church-related colleges often offer degrees in business through their degree-completion programs, in addition to their majors in Bible and ministry. This study sought to develop an understanding of the experiences of successful and unsuccessful students in degree-completion programs in Christian colleges, in order to inform policy and practice.