In order to realise career and personal goals, as well as financial autonomy and security, many women are pursuing higher education alongside the role of motherhood. Student-mothers face many challenges when engaging in higher education, and many fail to complete their studies. This phenomenological study applies a feminist lens to the choices,…

As the Australian labour market restructures and the pace of technological advances quickens, reskilling and up-skilling are now required for sustained employability. Thus, many adults embark on further study after spending a period of time in the workforce. To examine the reasons for re-engaging, and for not re-engaging with education during…

To determine the resources baby boomers use or develop to strategise successful engagement as later life university students, informal semi-structured interviews were conducted with 12 Australian baby boomers. The phenomenological data was analysed, themes identified and aligned with the volition phase stages of the adapted Health Action Process…

It is forecast that ageing baby boomers will have a substantial impact on future health expenditure. The primary aim of this study is to explore the perceived health benefits of later life university study for baby boomers. An online survey of Australian baby boomers examined their beliefs regarding the health benefits of studying at university in…

Transnational migration, especially the growth of forced migration is unsettling the literature on widening access to university education. Equity definitions and understandings that frame social inclusion have presumed stable domestic populations within nations and targeted redressing historic internal social inequalities. Refugees and people…

There is a need for culturally relevant and appropriate retention programs within a climate of ever-increasing neo-liberalism that is seeking to change the very nature and underlying rationale of higher education. This article is posited alongside the reflections of past and current university students, who highlight various socio-economic and…

What enables success for students studying in the humanities can be a contested space; dependent not only on the view taken on the content and purpose of specific subjects, but also on the nature of teaching and learning. This paper examines the process of redeveloping an elective unit in a Tertiary Enabling Programme to prepare students for study…

It is common for organizations such as the International Labour Organization and the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development to acknowledge that the links between education and work are far from smooth, creating a "crisis" for youth. This includes increasing rates of unemployment, under-employment and precarious work. In…

Internationally, research has indicated that returning to education for older learners provides the means for growth and change, for some students this can translate into a sense of "empowerment" and control in their personal lives. However, what is not so well researched is how having a significant "other" present within the…

This paper reports a critical comparative analysis of two popular and significant theories of adult learning: the transformation and the deep approach theories of learning. These theories are operative in different educational sectors, are significant, respectively, in each, and they may be seen as both touching on similar concerns with learning…

In modern society, individuals are having to assume increasing responsibility for their own career trajectories. One of the key ways in which individuals can engage in such "career self-management" is by taking up learning opportunities through further study. The purpose of this paper, therefore, is to explore, using the conceptual…

This article argues that Burton Clark's notion of the expanded developmental periphery provides a useful conceptual framework for examining the differing relationships between continuing and professional education units and the institutional core of traditional research universities. The intent is to examine how Clark's notion offers a means to…

Lifelong learning has come to be seen almost universally as essential for effective personal and social functioning in the modern world. Subsequently it has become the basis for educational and social policies in many modern societies, but not Australia where a spokesperson for the previous, conservative Liberal-Coalition federal government…

Discussions between new postgraduate students and potential supervisors prior to the formalisation of supervisor-student partnerships serve several useful purposes. One purpose is to explore the expectations that each partner has of the other and of themselves and the anticipated nature of the partnership. This article employs Freire's perspective…