Back for more: professionals return to school: they are not your traditional students. They go nights and weekends and work a full-time job, too.

• Author: Bonham, Nicole A.

When I returned to the university for graduate studies at 35, it was with an entirely different intent than the last visit 14 years ago, when my bachelor's degree mirrored the job market and advisors' promises of financial independence. This time around, I'm actually back for the process of learning, for some challenging brain exercise and a refresher on those basic concepts I know I studied once, but simply can't remember.

For total sell-fulfillment reasons, I chose an academic emphasis in liberal studies, with fascinating courses on poetry and nature writing, philosophy, history and rhetoric. And then suddenly I found myself signing up for a second emphasis in technology management, with technical classes regarding Microsoft Project, the intricacies of project planning, and challenges of managing a diverse knowledge bank. So what do these two study areas have in common? Not much at all. But they do illustrate the paradox we lace when realizing, first, that in cramming for the job market in our late teens and early 20s, we missed nut on the simple joys of learning; and second, that to advance out of the middle ranks of Dilbertville requires up-to the minute expertise and technical knowledge, something that 14-year-old bachelor's degrees in journalism and sociology simply don't offer.

So I returned to the world of semesters and quarters, mid-terms and final exams with some trepidation and a short list of requirements necessary to make it work with my lifestyle: convenient schedule and delivery, financial incentive or relief, and some acknowledgement for previous professional experience. Plus (shamelessly), given nearly two decades without algebra, I didn't want to take the graduate record examination, but nonetheless wanted the credibility of a degree from an accredited university.

It's a fairly venerable list, but one that is easily matched by many institutions in the state, suggesting that I'm not the only one who is back for more.

BACK TO THE BOOKS

Perhaps more than ever before, researchers say, working professionals are returning to the hallowed halls of academia for additional learning. For some, it's required, continued training to stay current with new and evolving technology. For others, it's a career change, or even an opportunity to study something philosophically interesting, rather than simply employment related. To answer this call, universities and training centers around the state are catering to the professional with convenient delivery systems, financial incentives and even credit for life and professional experience.

Not surprisingly, the University of Alaska's (www.alaska.edu) statewide learning system offers the professional a wide range of opportunities for initial and advanced degrees and technical certificates.

John Dede, the university's director of communications, hesitates to use the words "non-traditional student" to describe those who return to school from the labor ranks. The historical definition--not full-time, over age 24--simply doesn't fit anymore for a variety of reasons.

"We grapple with this problem (of...