Author: Edward L. King Sr.

Transition-related challenges hinder military veterans from excelling in higher education. Basically, transitioning from military to civilian life is a key hurdle for military veterans. For instance, they may experience challenges reintegrating into a family environment after years or months of being away on deployment. Particularly, challenges may be associated with the task of relearning family roles and responsibilities. Further complexities involve resource limitations. For instance, many families do not have the necessary resources to address the military veterans’ health issues like post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and traumatic brain injury (TBI) (Terry, 2018). In the long term, a combination of all these issues makes concentration in a class set-up difficult for a military veteran. 

In addition to reintegration-related challenges, financial difficulties are key hindrances to military veteran’s success in higher education. Basically, a majority of the veterans are low in income, given that their compensation package is quite modest. As a result, they are highly vulnerable to poverty and homelessness once they exit the profession (Terry, 2018). Furthermore, funding opportunities are quite limiting to enhance a military veteran’s success. For instance, the Post-911 GI Bill covers only 36 months of education (Terry, 2018). Therefore, students have to take high course loads to complete their studies before the expiry of their funding (Bass, 2021). Consequently, the program is quite stressful and a further contribution to financial and emotional challenges already facing military veterans.

Apart from financial issues, military veterans rarely excel in higher education after being out of a classroom setting for years. Basically, continuing education in the military mostly takes the form of online classes (Terry, 2018). Therefore, student veterans are not used to a traditional classroom set-up. On the same note, the age gap between military veterans and other learners is quite high, which further makes it harder for the veterans to feel at ease in such a set-up. Likewise, many military veterans take additional off-campus employment to support their families (Bass, 2021). As a result, there is a wider social gap between student veterans and their classmates who may have lesser responsibilities (Terry, 20 18). All these challenges make military veterans feel unprepared for the academic rigors of college life and may question the relevance of pursuing a college degree.

Besides the unfamiliarity with a traditional classroom set-up, the differences in structure between military and college life make it hard for military veterans to excel in higher education. Notably, academic institutions encourage learners to scrutinize the factual basis of others’ claims. In contrast, strict obedience to authority is highly emphasized and expected in the military (Semer & Harmening, 2015). On the same note, schools encourage learners to develop their viewpoints and mindset. Contrastingly, obedience to a clearly laid out set of commands and engagement in a highly-structured lifestyle is expected in the military service (Terry, 2018). In the long term, these differences make it hard for military veterans to get used to college life. Their training makes them unsure of the requisite responses to employ across various academic situations.

Lastly, the negative attitudes of college personnel towards military veteran students makes them failures in higher education. As Semer and Harmening (2015) note, some faculty members in higher education have a pervasive attitude towards student veterans. Notably, they exhibit pity, pretentious empathy, and condescension towards such students. Likewise, some faculty members view student veterans as having more problems than other learners. For instance, professors may perceive student veterans as academically underprepared and thus treat them with pity and disrespect. In extreme cases, the professionals may categorize student veterans as incapable of improving. In the long term, student veterans have limited room for academic excellence when their professors express little faith in them instead of according them the necessary support. The lack of support from faculty members renders them even more hopeless about excelling academically. 

References

Bass, E. (2021). Educational benefits for veterans: The Post-9/11 GI Bill. Educational Studies, 47(1), 108-116. https://doi.org/10.1080/03055698.2019.1665987

Semer, C., & Harmening, D. S. (2015). Exploring significant factors that impact the academic success of student veterans in higher education. Journal of Higher Education Theory & Practice, 15(7). http://digitalcommons.www.na-businesspress.com/JHETP/SemerC_Web15_7_.pdfTerry, A. D. (2018). Barriers to academic success experienced by student veterans. McNair Scholars Research Journal, 11(1), 12. https://commons.emich.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1137&context=mcnair