University of Phoenix College of Doctoral Studies announced the publication of "Engaging the Overextended: Designing Higher Education for Women Balancing Care, Work, and Learning," a new white paper by Jessica Sylvester, Ed.D., MBA, Senior Manager of College Operations and associate faculty member at the University, and a research fellow with the University's Center for Educational and Instructional Technology Research (CEITR) . The paper examines how traditional higher education structures often assume uninterrupted time and predictable availability—conditions that don't match the lived reality of women managing caregiving, employment and education simultaneously.
Drawing on findings from the 2025 University of Phoenix Career Optimism Special Report™ Series: Moms in the Sandwich Generation and related research, Sylvester connects workforce pressures to higher education engagement and persistence. The white paper highlights that 59% of sandwich-generation moms report their combined roles have restricted professional growth, 51% have left a job due to caregiving conflicts, and 62% say maintaining a career feels like a luxury—constraints that shape whether learners can start, continue, or return to school.
"Engagement is a design problem, not a motivation problem," said Sylvester. "When institutions build learning around real life—flexible time structures, authentic welcoming, recognition of lived expertise, and thoughtful AI-enabled support—women who are balancing care, work and learning can persist and succeed without having to choose between family and future."
White paper focus: life-aligned design for modern adult learners
The paper outlines practical, thoughtful approaches higher education leaders and policymakers can implement to better serve overextended learners, including:
- Reimagining time and engagement structures to support asynchronous participation and nonlinear progress
- Treating belonging as academic infrastructure through cohort models, mentoring networks and relational teaching practices
- Expanding stackable and modular learning pathways that translate into career mobility in real time
- Recognizing experiential learning through Credit for Prior Learning (CPL) as tool for parity that reduces time-to-completion and cost
- Using AI thoughtfully to expand capacity, including re-entry supports, just-in-time help and reduced administrative burden.
The full white paper is available on the University of Phoenix Career Institute® webpage or on the Research Hub .
