Abstract

QUINTAS, Helena et al. Adult students in Higher Education: What motivates and what challenges them in their return to academic life. Rev. Port. de Educação [online]. 2014, vol.27, n.2, pp.33-56. ISSN 0871-9187.

This article refers to a study about adult students who have gained entry to Portuguese universities under the "Over 23s" admission process. It aims to analyse the main problems that such students face, especially those who are older and who are known in the literature as mature students. For personal and professional reasons, these students took the decision to obtain an academic degree, but they are not on an equal footing with the other colleagues who accessed Higher Education in a traditional way, with whom they do not share the same motivations and interests. Some limitations caused by age require a permanent adjustment between their real capacity for achievement and the demands of university life, and they experience a pressure to succeed imposed by their personal and, often, by their professional lives. Biographic interviews were carried out with 5 students with older ages (between 45 and 60 years), with the aim of understanding the challenges and the limitations they face, but also to discover the strategies they use to "survive" and to achieve "success" in a university setting.

Keywords : Higher Education; Students over 23 years; Adult learners; Lifelong learning.

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