Amplifying Older Students: Preliminary Results on Belonging at Age-friendly Universities

• In Event: Roundtable Session 5
  In Refereed Roundtable Session: Improvement of School Systems and Educational Systems to Promote Social Justice and Inclusion

Proposal

By 2030, the over 65 population will comprise over 20% of the populations of the United States, Germany, Greece, and other European nations. Moreover, by 2050 there will be 573 million people over the age of 65 in East and South-east Asia (United Nations, 2019). As the world’s population ages, adult learning and education have become a significant part of the global push to promote lifelong learning. Changing age demographics will impact the workplace, consumer markets, and tertiary educational institutions. One response to the needs and aspirations of an aging population has been the development of age-segregated programming such as University of the Third Age, established in 1973, Road Scholar, established in 1975 and Osher Lifelong Learning Institutes, founded in 2000. However, another less explored option has been intergenerational options on university campuses, i.e. adults 60 and older enroll in traditional college classes alongside 18-22 year old students. Bringing older adults into the fold of mainstream higher education benefits not only older adults by providing richer later life experiences but also enriches the collegiate experience of younger students. (Newman & Hatton-Yeo, 2008)
Recognizing the needs of an aging population, in 2012, the Age-Friendly University (AFU) Global Network launched through a collaboration of Dublin City University, Arizona State University, and the University of Strathclyde. Today, the network brings together over 85 higher educational institutions committed to creating age-friendly programs and policies that endorse the following 10 Age-friendly university principles. Two key principles of AFUs that I explore is, “the participation of older adults in all the core activities of the university” and “intergenerational learning to facilitate the reciprocal sharing of expertise between learners of all ages” (AFU-Dublin City University, 2022). While still evolving and expanding, the AFU Global Network has the potential to inform higher education policy worldwide and the voice of older adults needs to be clearly articulated. My research serves to inform relevant stakeholders of the needs, preferences and motivations of older student populations by focusing on their lived experience at a large public research university that recently took on the AFU designation. Drawing on phenomenological methodology, in-depth interviews with older students help provide answers to the following questions: 1) How do older adults participating in traditional college/university courses characterize their lived experience on Age-friendly university campuses? 2) What role does a sense of belonging to the campus community play in an older student’s ‘successful’ college/university experience? College campuses offer a form of community and may serve a substantial role in healthy aging by providing a means to combat social isolation and loneliness experienced by so many older adults in western society. Using Strayhorn’s (2019) definition of sense of belonging on college campuses as a conceptual frame, the study provides a formalized understanding of older student campus experiences and provides policy makers and campus leadership with a toolkit to make informed decisions going forward. Reconceptualizing higher education institutions to serve a much larger percentage of the population is central to successfully adapting to rapidly changing age demographics.

Author

• Farah Baig, University of Minnesota