| Statement of Purpose and Problem. With increasing competition for adult students and fewer traditional-age college students, institutions need to learn more about their adult learners. This study surveys the Spring 1982 Continuing Education credit enrollment at the Fashion Institute of Technology, a State University of New York unit, to identify characteristics of current adult learners and sift those characteristics for implications for institutional change.;Survey items focus on student personal characteristics, goals, perceived needs, degree of satisfaction with the way those needs are being met, and perceived barriers. Results are presented descriptively with implications drawn for institutional change and for research and practice.;Results and Conclusions. Respondents are likely to be single female residents of New York City in their twenties, full-time employees who had attended another college. Ethnic and age breakdowns vary by major field of interest, suggesting that departmental policy decisions can influence the enrollment mix.;Respondents are likely to have career-related reasons for attending. They rank evening classes, the library, career advisement/job placement counseling, academic advisement, and summer classes high in importance. They are most satisfied with registration methods, the library, payment methods, class scheduling, and family support. They are least satisfied with student activities, financial aid, and employer support. Too little time and not enough money are their most serious problems.;Procedures Followed. Created primarily from the literature, the Adult Learner Survey was refined through student interviews and review by F.I.T. administrators and administered in Continuing Education credit classes in March 1982. A tape of the data was transferred to the Center for Computing and Information Management Services at Teachers College for descriptive analysis through the Frequencies and Crosstabs sub-programs of the Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS).;F.I.T. should consider replicating existing departmental enrollment models; improving services provided for adult learners; undertaking a persistence study of adult learners; examining alternative delivery systems; and establishing a round-the-clock adult learning center, either alone or with other institutions. Other institutions should consider using the Adult Learner Survey procedure as a model with appropriate modifications of the instrument. |
