Adult students are not well documented, are frequently left out of discussions of higher-education policy, and are not fully understood by the colleges they attend, says a report ("Returning to Learning: Adults' Success in College is Key to America's Future") released this week by the Lumina Foundation for Education. As a result, those students often have no clear, viable paths to earning bachelor's degrees and establishing careers. A key flaw, the report says, is the gap between noncredit study--like remedial education and job-related training--and degree programs. Many adult students start in noncredit, skills-related programs and, after months and even years of effort, make no progress toward earning associate or bachelor's degrees. Moreover, many adult students get lost in a "hidden college" of noncredit courses, where their goals and educational achievements are a mystery to policy makers and colleges alike. No national data exist on the number of students enrolled in noncredit programs or what courses they take, and most colleges do not track those students. What is already clear, says the report, is that the aid policies of colleges, states, and the federal government typically do not do well in serving adult students in noncredit and continuing-education programs. Most financial-aid programs are designed with full-time students who are recent high-school graduates in mind. The 2004 National Study of Continuing Education, conducted as part of the Emerging Pathways Project, found that a majority of continuing-education students--who were 33 years old, on average--did not receive financial aid. Only a third of the students surveyed received student loans, and less than a third received private scholarships or state and federal grants. In addition to revamping financial-aid policies, the Lumina report says, higher-education leaders must throw out old notions of traditional and nontraditional undergraduates.