SINGAPORE – Some families in Singapore are flipping the script when it comes to school.

Instead of ferrying the grandchildren to school, seniors are taking online lessons with their adult offspring. Late-career professionals and their recent-graduate kids are equally hungry to rise in the ranks with higher qualifications.

These midlifers are having none of that crisis cliche: They are helping themselves to their second – or fourth – diploma, thank you.

Inter-generational learning has become part of the lifelong learning boom in recent years.

Local universities and polytechnics are reporting a spike in the number of older learners in recent years, attesting to the changing face of higher education.

At Nanyang Technological University (NTU), enrolment for learners aged 40 and above increased between 20 and 30 per cent, year on year, for its non-degree Continuing Education and Training programmes. NTU’s postgraduate programmes saw a 10 per cent rise in this age group over the past two academic years.  

The number of older learners at National University of Singapore (NUS) and Singapore University of Social Sciences (SUSS) has also spiked.

Between 2021 and 2025, enrolment for those in their 40s and older grew by about 28 per cent across SUSS’ undergraduate and postgraduate programmes. At NUS, this group of learners in its lifelong learning programmes numbered more than 8,000 in 2024, doubling from around 4,000 in 2017.

At Republic Polytechnic, the proportion of students aged 40 and above rose from 47 per cent in 2022 to 56 per cent in 2025. At Temasek Polytechnic, this age group accounted for 57 per cent of its adult learner cohort in 2025, a rise of about 10 percentage points from 2024.

Professor Boh Wai Fong, NTU’s Vice-President (Lifelong Learning and Alumni Engagement), says: “Overall, the rise in older learners reflects a broader shift in how education is understood. University education is no longer confined to one’s early ...