Voices from Down Under

Abstract

AbstractConsistent with international trends, Australian higher education has diversified its entry pathways leading to university study no longer being restricted to school leavers. Australian government statistics from 2018 indicate 32% of commencing students across all higher education courses in Australian universities being aged 25 or older, with ‘adult’ learners comprising 26% of the national undergraduate intake (DOE, 2018). This is an increase of 12% from 2014 (). In 2013, Watson, Hagel and Chesters found less than half of all commencing Australian undergraduate students entered on the basis of their secondary school results, indicating a sustained shift from traditional entry pathways into the academy. The motivations for adult learners can be distinct from their school leaver counterparts. Many adults are entering the higher education environment for the first time to either pursue lifelong ambitions, provide opportunities for their current career advancement, or retraining for a career change ().The University of Adelaide has witnessed this growth of adult students in the academy with current enrolments of students aged >25 years being 26% (). This co-created book chapter will present a series of ‘snapshots’ from the academic journeys of these students. As early as the 1970’s Malcolm Knowles recognised that adults came into the learning environment with different skill sets, goals, capabilities, levels of understanding and diverse life experiences. According to Knowles, adult learners needed to have their skill sets acknowledged, respected and valued in order for these students to engage actively in their own learning process. Today, Knowles’ adult learning principles have been extrapolated more comprehensively in the Universal Design for Learning (UDL) Framework developed by the Centre of Applied Special Technology (CAST) (). The contemporaneous nature of the UDL addresses a wider range of students with diverse learning needs, including adult learners. This framework captures the necessity to embed the affective domain (emotional) in the learning process, and explicitly demonstrates how a teacher can address the needs of adult learners through multiple ways of representing course material and assessment approaches.The longstanding adult learning principles developed by that are encapsulated in the UDL framework, will underpin a set of standardised questions to be answered by current students and recent graduates aged 25 years or older from three diverse programs at the University of Adelaide, namely Engineering, Agriculture and Oral Health. A team of adult students, graduates and academics will analyse the data to investigate whether the needs of adult students have been accommodated as well as identifying areas where there are common shortfalls or failings in the academy. Implications for future practice to enhance the experience of the adult learner will be discussed through this co-creation approach, as a means of guiding the changes that should be implemented in this Australian academy. The notion of ‘being the change we want to see’ is greatly enhanced by the authorship of this chapter comprising adult students, graduates and the academics who teach them.