Analyzing the lived experience of adult students studying in Islamic Azad University

Learning at any age can be useful and effective, and adults can also benefit from higher education. The main purpose of this research was to analyze the lived experience of adult students studying in Islamic Azad University.

The qualitative method of theme analysis was used in the research method. The participants were adult graduate students and retirees studying at the university, and 23 people were selected from among them through a purposeful criterion-based sampling method. The criteria for selecting the participants was having the necessary experience in the field of adult education and being among adult students or retired graduate students. The selection criteria for sampling was the theoretical saturation of the data. Validation of the research was done using four criteria of credibility (credibility), impartiality (verifiability), reliability (compatibility), and applicability (transferability).

The findings showed that the conceptual framework of adult higher education consists of 3 dimensions (key, content and executive) and 20 criteria (belonging to the mind, freedom of action and respect, self-awareness, group-oriented, motivational, self-expression, skill-oriented, communication, lifelong learning, flexibility, evaluation and mentorship, need-oriented, goal setting, policy making, platform creation, content creation, implementation and evaluation).

Paying attention to the dimensions and criteria discovered in this research provides the way to create higher adult education and the necessary sensitivity in this field.