Why Colleges Should Support Non-Traditional Students (and How to Do It)

For some students, enrolling in college is the next step after high school graduation. However, for others, life takes a different turn, leading them to college or university on an unconventional path. These students are called “non-traditional students,” and they’re an essential part of your student body. 

Non-traditional students, typically 24 years old or older, are part-time students, remote students, working professionals, parents, or military veterans. Through their lived experiences, these students bring a unique perspective to the classroom. 

As an institution, you should make it a priority to support these students on their journey to higher education. Here’s why (and how!).

Why Non-Traditional Students Are Essential to the Future of Higher Education

With more and more employers requiring employees to obtain a higher degree of education beyond a high school diploma, many adults recognize the value of completing a degree program. Non-traditional students make up over 30% of students enrolled in an institution. While the term “non-traditional students” typically refers to any student over 24, younger students may also fit the definition, especially if they are working to support their families or dependents. 

Your institution needs these students. Colleges and universities are a melting pot of rich experiences, ideas, and perspectives. Non-traditional students broaden the diversity on campus and offer a fresh perspective to challenges that traditional students might not have thought of or faced. 

Challenges Non-Traditional Students Face

As an institution, there are ways you can help non-traditional students reach their goals. To do so, however, you must understand their challenges:

• Balancing Responsibilities: Non-traditional students often juggle multiple responsibilities, including family life, balancing full or part-time work, and meeting school deadlines. 
• Financial Barriers: Some non-traditional students opt to delay their academics due to the rising costs of higher education. For many students, the cost of attending can be a barrier to their goals.
• Academic and Social Interaction: Non-traditional students could face feelings of isolation and disconnection with their peers. This could be because they’re older than their peers or not on campus as much as traditional students, making it harder for them to participate in campus activities and events.

Although these challenges are persistent, there are ways to work around them and offer support.

Strategies Institutions Can Use to Support Non-Traditional Students

Once you better understand non-traditional students, finding engagement strategies to support them is easy. Offering flexible learning options, like online, hybrid, or evening and weekend classes, can make your degree programs more accessible for students who work or need to stay home to care for their family members. 

You can also create scholarships and grant opportunities specifically for non-traditional students. While you should focus on providing fair and equal opportunities for all students, scholarships for non-traditional students can ease the financial burden, ensuring your students stay enrolled and finish their degrees. Work-study and paid internships are also a great way to reduce the financial burden. These programs help students earn an income and gain valuable work experience in their chosen field. 

Finally, your campus advisors should also focus on providing targeted academic support. This might mean offering tutoring sessions outside of the regular tutoring hours or consistently checking in with non-traditional students to provide help, support, and encouragement to finish their assignments on time.

Leveraging a Conversational Intelligence Platform to Support Non-Traditional Students

Supporting your non-traditional students in ways that are meaningful to them comes down to increasing your communication efforts. Your students do not want to feel like they’re on their own to navigate the challenges of returning to school well after graduation. These students often need targeted support, like help enrolling in their classes, reminders, and support about submission deadlines and scholarship guidelines. 

Academic advisors can use a multi-channel platform to ensure communication efforts are resonating with students. Mongoose, a conversational intelligence platform, integrates directly into your existing tech stack to help deliver better, more targeted messages. You can use Mongoose to:

• Streamline Communication: Your campus likely has a variety of nontraditional students. Some might be part-time students, while others are fully remote. Getting in touch with them can be challenging. Mongoose helps you reach these students instantly by sending SMS, live chat, or WhatsApp messages.
• Personalized Support: Sorting your students into groups based on their interests and circumstances is a great way to ensure they receive only the messages tailored to them. For example, if your campus hosts a child-friendly event, you can send an update to the students who are parents about the event and encourage them to bring their kids. 
• 24/7 Access to Resources: All students, whether they’re nontraditional or traditional, often need immediate support during after-work hours. This can be a problem, especially if deadlines are looming. Incorporating an intuitive AI assistant into your website can provide students with extra resources and support at any time of day. 

Reach Your Non-Traditional Students with Mongoose

Non-traditional students are an essential part of your student body. They are parents, military veterans, older adults, and working professionals. Meeting the needs of these students is crucial, especially if you want them to stay enrolled in your degree programs. 

Constant communication can remind students of their commitment to higher education, support them in reaching their goals, and help them manage their responsibilities. Tools like Mongoose can help your team ensure the messages you send your students are relevant and timely. 

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