Financial Aid Available For Adults Wanting To Get Their Distance Learning Course!
Adults enrolled in online college classes and pursuing online degrees might be the biggest beneficiaries of the new federal education bill intended to generate $61 billion for higher education and tuition assistance.
Nearly 7 million adult students account for as much as 70 percent of college enrollment, according to the National Center for Education Statistics. Some say adults are making the most of a sluggish economy by investing in the future. Many adults are enrolled in online college classes and online degree programs that afford convenience and flexibility. And tuition assistance options, including grants for college, have begun opening up to them.
“The payoff is so significant — and the cost of not obtaining a college degree or credential so steep — that huge numbers of adult students are stepping up to face the challenges,” Lumina Foundation for Education President Jamie P. Merisotis wrote in a foundation publication.
The Lumina Foundation and the Council for the Adult and Experiential Living work to expand access for adults interested in continued education, in part by encouraging increased tuition assistance. Through the education bill, the government expects to save money and boost college graduation rates. The education bill ends government subsidies and backing for bank and private lender issued student loans. And over the next decade, it expands the government’s Pell grant program by $36 billion, adds $2 billion to community college job training programs and makes paying the federal government’s Stafford and Perkins loans easier.
College enrollment among adults has been growing for some time. While the number of 18 to 24-year-old students increased by 41 percent between 1970 and 2000, the number of adult students rose 170 percent, according to a report entitled, “32 Trends Affecting Distance Education.” Still, the United States reportedly ranks 14th in college graduation rates worldwide. Adults, often with few financial aid resources, could spend well over four years working part-time to earn a bachelor degree, the Lumina Foundation reports.
Online college offerings have since grown substantially. Some institutions provide online college credit for life experience and offer accelerated online degree programs. Pell grants alone help with as much as 35 percent of the average student tuition. The grants, which don’t have to be repaid, are available to students working toward their first bachelor degree as well as post-graduate students enrolled in programs that lead to a teacher certificate or license. Pell grants are awarded based on financial need that, for adults, is measured by income and assets, family household size, and the number of family members, excluding parents, who attend institutions of higher education. The grants don’t have to be repaid but, to be eligible, students must be enrolled at least half-time.
Still other schools and states are reportedly starting to set aside grants for college specifically for adult students. At least one agency offers tuition waivers for displaced workers who are unemployed or earning less money than they had been, according to the Lumina Foundation. And some employers have reportedly started a 401K-like tuition savings method that the Center for Adult and Experiential Learning initiated. Through this method, known as a Lifelong Learning Account (LiLA), employees can have pretax money for training and education deducted from their payroll checks and matched by their employers.
Non-profit organizations, for-profit companies, civic groups and labor unions that offer scholarships, fellowships and grants for their online degree education and that might help adults seeking assistance on their distance learning online degree and online degree programs. If you are interested in going back to college online and want more information about your distance learning degrees, you can find it on the internet.
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