Understanding the Stop-Out Population: Supporting Their Return and Degree Completion

In a recent HigherEdJobs Careers and Coffee conversation, host Kelly Cherwin, director of editorial strategy at HigherEdJobs, sat down with Nicole Westrick, assistant vice president and dean of the College of Interdisciplinary and Continuing Studies (CICS) at Morgan State University, a public HBCU founded in 1867 and located in Baltimore, Maryland, to discuss how institutions can better support adult learners who left college before finishing their degree. Through the college’s Morgan Completes You initiative, Westrick leads 18-degree programs designed specifically for adult learners with prior college credit who are ready to return and finish.

The conversation covered why students stop out, what supports can help them find their way back, and what other institutions can learn from the Morgan State model.

Why Students Leave — and Why They Hesitate to Return

According to the National Student Clearinghouse Research Center, more than 43 million Americans have some college experience but no credential, 37.6 million of whom are working-age adults under 65.

Westrick was clear that stopping out is rarely about motivation. “It’s a mismatch between the realities of modern learners and our institutional structures,” she said. Adult learners are managing jobs, caregiving responsibilities, and financial pressure, and when higher education feels inflexible, leaving becomes the easier path.

Returning is just as complicated. Most stop-out students assume they are starting over. “If you’re starting at zero, 120 credits seems like a pretty overwhelming goal,” Westrick said. Students worry their credits won’t count or that the process will be too complicated to manage alongside everything else in their lives. “When students stop, it’s not necessarily a lack of motivation or capability,” she added.

What Morgan State Is Doing Differently

The university launched Morgan Completes You in 2021 with flexibility built in from the start. Credits do not expire — while most institutions impose a five- or seven-year window on transfer credits, the college accepts credits from regionally accredited institutions regardless of when they were earned. Students can also see how their prior credits apply to degree requirements before a formal transfer evaluation is complete, removing one of the most common sources of frustration.

The college also recognizes prior learning in ways that directly reduce time to degree. Westrick shared the example of a yoga instructor who needed one physical education course to graduate. Rather than require a class she had already mastered professionally, the college worked to count her 200-hour certification toward that requirement. “Learning doesn’t always happen in a college classroom,” Westrick said. That conversation helped shape a broader credit for prior learning policy that Morgan State formally approved in May 2024.

Westrick also noted that the program thinks carefully about who its students are, organizing them into four groups: traditional degree completers, career changers, “paper ceiling” students who keep hitting credential walls on the path to promotion, and legacy scholars returning to fulfill a long-held promise. Each group needs different support, so advising and services are designed accordingly.

Keeping Students on Track

Once students are back, Westrick said maintaining momentum requires “human connection and strategic use of data.” The team uses learning management system data to spot early warning signs. “It’s often not that a student doesn’t want to do the coursework,” she said. “It’s that everything else seems like it’s more important and on fire.” A timely text message, she noted, is often enough to get a student back on track. “We didn’t realize how important it was until we implemented it,” Westrick said of texting outreach. “Students may not check their email, but our mobile devices are with us all the time.”

Advisors also help students set realistic credit loads each semester. “Maybe this semester is a three-credit semester rather than a six-credit semester,” Westrick said — a small shift that helps students succeed instead of burning out again.

What Other Institutions Can Learn

Westrick described adult learners as “stealth,” meaning they are reading your website and forming opinions long before they ever fill out an inquiry form. “If the only people shown are 18-year-olds sitting on the grassy quad, you’re not telling adult learners that they’re welcome at your institution,” she said. Cherwin echoed the point, noting that a confusing or inconsistent experience — whether on a website or over the phone — can push prospective students to look elsewhere. “From the time they sign on to your website, you want them to feel this is easy,” Cherwin said.

Westrick also highlighted a shift in how adult learners are finding information. “Think about a parent who’s put their kids to bed. It’s now 9 p.m. They’re going to get out Google,” she said. “And now with generative AI, they’re actually asking AI questions.” That means institutions need to think carefully not just about what their website says, but about how that information is structured so it surfaces accurately when prospective students turn to AI tools for answers after hours.

She encouraged institutions to prepare admissions staff to give specific answers about cost and transfer credit, to educate adult learners about financial aid options like FAFSA, and to stay connected with paused students through a simple, consistent message. “We’re here when you’re ready,” Westrick said of how Morgan State reaches out each semester to students who have stepped away.

“The institutions that are going to lead in this space,” Westrick said, “are the ones that build flexible, mobility-centered pathways that learners can carry forward all the way to degree completion.”

Watch the full Careers & Coffee conversation on YouTube.

About Careers & Coffee:

HigherEdJobs’ Careers &Coffee is a series of live, interactive Zoom conversations with experts in higher education. Designed to help job seekers and higher ed professionals reflect meaningfully on their careers, the series offers expert advice and insights on best practices, emerging trends, and career-related issues. View a list of all sessions.