Press Release

Media Contact: Steven Shapiro
(303) 886-6342
sshapiro@commstratgroup.com

EDUVENTURES REPORT EXPLORES FINANCING AND TUITION ASSISTANCE FOR ADULT LEARNING

(Boston, MA) February 27, 2007 - In one of the most comprehensive explorations of how adult learners finance their education, Eduventures, the leading research and consulting firm for the education industry, found that approximately half of all adult learners surveyed are using or expect to use either cash savings or employer tuition assistance/reimbursement to finance their educational costs, making these by far the two most often utilized financial sources. Only 28% of the surveyed continuing and professional education consumers use or expect to use federal student loans, compared to nearly two-thirds of traditional undergraduate students, according to the U.S. Department of Education.

"Adult learners are financially independent and the vast majority of them are working full time and pursuing college part time. Thus, these very characteristics disqualify them from accessing many types of traditional financial aid options," said Sean Gallagher, program director and senior research analyst for Eduventures' Learning Collaborative in Continuing and Professional Education. "Without question, employer assistance plays the most critical and unique role of all financial sources as a motivator and an enabler of access for adult learners."

Eduventures' recently issued report, Assessing Consumer Preferences for Adult, Continuing, and Professional Education: Financing and Tuition Assistance in Adult Learning, is derived from a nationwide survey of more than 25,000 currently enrolled and prospective continuing and professional education students. Overall, more than half of employed respondents (52%) report that they receive or expect to receive tuition assistance from their employer.

The study also found that the use of employer tuition assistance is most prevalent among adult learners employed in manufacturing and production-oriented industry sectors such as utilities, manufacturing, and mining - as well as finance and insurance, public administration/active duty military, and professional, scientific and technical sectors. By area of study, disciplines with a practical or professional orientation (e.g., engineering, business, information technology, nursing) feature the greatest percentages of adult learners receiving employer tuition assistance.

"Adult learners across a variety of industry sectors and curriculum disciplines of study are proactively making use of employer-provided tuition assistance benefits," Gallagher said. "Not surprisingly, career advancers - consumers who are pursuing continuing and professional education to improve their skills or performance in their current job - are most likely to be taking advantage of employer assistance, with more than 60% receiving some level of employer tuition reimbursement, regardless of the course or program type they are pursuing."

Assessing Consumer Preferences for Adult, Continuing, and Professional Education: Financing and Tuition Assistance in Adult Learning is the second in a series of reports to be released this winter that analyze continuing and professional education consumers' preferences and educational purchasing processes. This research is a product of Eduventures' Learning Collaborative in Continuing and Professional Education, a member-based research program designed to help college and university administrators of continuing and professional education departments address critical strategic, marketing, and operational challenges. For more information on the Learning Collaborative programs or the report, contact Blair Walker at bwalker@eduventures.com or 617-532-6060.

About Eduventures
For more than a decade, Eduventures has been the most trusted name in the education market for research, consulting services, and peer networking. Its clients include senior administrators and executives from leading educational institutions and companies serving the K-12, higher education, and corporate learning markets, as well as decision-makers in government agencies and the investment community.