DIFFERENCES IN CHEMICAL ENGINEERING STUDENT-FACULTY INTERACTIONS BY STUDENT AGE AND EXPERIENCE AT A LARGE, PUBLIC, RESEARCH UNIVERSITY

摘要

Efforts to improve the engineering workforce include research to understand and support student diversity. One important aspect of student difference that is often overlooked is student age. Adult students, those age 25 and older, are an increasingly prevalent group of students in institutions of higher education. The National Center for Education Statistics projects that the rate of increase of students over the age of 25 will outpace the rate for traditionally aged students through 2023. Recent work analyzing the Multiple-Insti tution Database for Investigating Engineering Longitudinal Development (MIDFIELD) database of 209,737 engineering students found that non traditional students, many of whom are adult students, made up 10% of the undergraduate engineering population from 1988 to 2002. This shift makes it important for instructors, administrators, and researchers to understand and promote positive outcomes for adult students.