tag:theconversation.com,2011:/ca/topics/part-time-students-14458/articlesPart time students – The Conversation2016-02-10T16:00:02Ztag:theconversation.com,2011:article/535712016-02-10T16:00:02Z2016-02-10T16:00:02ZSocial mobility isn’t just about 18-year-olds: adults need life chances too<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/109869/original/image-20160201-32222-1jqy9a0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Universities have experienced a big drop in part-time students.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">R. Gino Santa Maria/www.shutterstock.com</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>The prime minister has <a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/education/universityeducation/11436076/Universities-told-to-double-number-of-poorer-students.html">pledged to double</a> the number of students from disadvantaged backgrounds entering higher education by 2020. David Cameron has signalled an all-out attack on poverty and has <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/speeches/watch-out-universities-im-bringing-the-fight-for-equality-in-britain-to-you-article-by-david-cameron">thrown down the gauntlet to universities</a> to deliver on social justice.</p>
<p>He will be aware that many universities already have a proud history of widening participation to students from groups traditionally under-represented in higher education. Disadvantaged youngsters <a href="https://www.ucas.com/sites/default/files/ucas-submission-to-the-call-for-evidence-to-the-commission-on-child-poverty-and-social-mobility.pdf">were 70% more likely</a> to enter higher education in 2014 than they were in 2004. </p>
<p>The universities which have had most impact in widening participation include Bolton, Edge Hill, Greenwich, London Metropolitan, London South Bank, Sunderland, Teeside and Wolverhampton. Until 1992, these were all former polytechnics, and are now known as “new” or post-92 universities, which tend to have missions to support students from all backgrounds to succeed.</p>
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<p>I fear, in challenging higher education to address social mobility, the prime minister may be thinking only about more of those ubiquitous 18-year-old school leavers aiming at full-time undergraduate study. But given the <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/education/2013/mar/18/higher-education-future-demographic">gradual demographic fall</a> in the number of 18-year-olds since 2011, there will not be enough of these potential students to have a significant impact on aspirations for a more equal society – to say nothing of addressing Britain’s skills shortages.</p>
<p>My <a href="https://www.heacademy.ac.uk/resource/shoe-horned-and-side-lined-challenges-part-time-learners-new-he-landscape">own research</a> suggests the key disadvantaged group on which universities could have a quicker, and more transformative impact, are mature learners who are limited by personal circumstances to part-time study. </p>
<p>These part-time students include everybody from adults who missed out at 18 and aspire for a second chance while working and learners with low or alternative entry qualifications, to poorer learners in low-status jobs – often women who are seeking a transformative life chance to benefit their families.</p>
<p>Their needs cannot be met by the inflexibilities inherent in mainstream full-time higher education. If universities were further given incentives to offer more attractive, flexible and affordable part-time courses, the prime minister’s aspirations for a more equal society could be met through higher education.</p>
<p>Yet the <a href="https://www.hesa.ac.uk/sfr224">most recent data</a> from the Higher Education Statistics Agency demonstrates that the number of students enrolling for UK part-time higher education decreased by 6% between the 2013-14 and 2014-15 academic years. </p>
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<p>The proportion of undergraduates studying part-time continues to fall, and is now down to 25% of the total. This dramatic decline is acutely relevant to Cameron’s pledge: part-timers are the most vulnerable in the sector.</p>
<h2>Securing student opportunity</h2>
<p>The crucial source of funding, which enables many in the higher education sector to support activities to help disadvantaged students to succeed, is the <a href="http://www.hefce.ac.uk/sas/funding/">Student Opportunity Fund</a>. Money from this is distributed to universities in England who charge fees between £6,000 to a maximum £9,000 for full-time students, and £4,500 to £6,750 for <a href="http://university.which.co.uk/advice/student-finance/student-finance-part-time">part-time students</a>.</p>
<p>The fund is used to meet the needs of a wide range of students, recognising that learners from disadvantaged backgrounds are less likely to complete their studies and need customised support. </p>
<p>Learners from disadvantaged backgrounds are less likely to achieve a “good” pass (a first or upper second class honours degree). For example, <a href="http://www.hefce.ac.uk/pubs/Year/2015/201521/">last year</a> students from neighbourhoods with the lowest higher education participation rate were 11% less likely to achieve a good degree than those from areas with the highest participation. Mature students are also 11% less likely than younger students to gain a good degree, and part-time students are 18% less likely than full-timers. </p>
<p>All universities offering part-time learning depend on the Student Opportunity Fund. At my own institution, the Open University – where 18% of all new student registrations are from a low socio-economic background – dedicated learner support and inclusive materials are embedded in the student experience. With 16% of our undergraduates declaring a disability, the university also targets them with pre-entry advice and technologies, including specialist equipment to support study independence. This ranges from voice recognition software for physically disabled learners to the conversion of print materials into an electronic form, read out in a synthetic voice, for blind students. </p>
<p>Demands for such support has increased in recent years, as <a href="https://www.hesa.ac.uk/pis/dsa">the number of disabled students across</a> the sector has risen. We are also experiencing far more students presenting mental health issues. My research suggested that characteristics such as disability may overlap with low socio-economic status, as people can be excluded from employment opportunities and reliant on benefits. As a result, students enrol in university with a potentially toxic set of barriers to learning. </p>
<h2>Uncertain future</h2>
<p>Universities are bracing themselves while the Department of Business and Skills (BiS) considers options for higher education funding following the government’s spending review. The annual higher education grant letter from the Higher Education Funding Council for England, which sets out how much state funding universities receive, will have to be sent by May at the latest. </p>
<p>The <a href="http://www.ianaustin.co.uk/buried_in_the_small_print_school_academies_budget_and_student_opportunities_fund_both_slashed">sector fears</a> that the funding universities receive to attract disadvantaged learners will be restructured, reducing the amount spent on measures to widen participation – including the Student Opportunity Fund – by 50% over the next five years.</p>
<p>The government could address these fears, by safeguarding rather than cutting the fund. There is a pressing need for it. Protecting it will enable universities to support the prime minister’s pledges for a more just society by supporting those universities which enable the most disadvantaged in society to achieve the goals of greater chances in life.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/53571/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>John Butcher does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Part-time students are some of the most disadvantaged – universities need money to help them.John Butcher, Senior Lecturer/Deputy Director Access Curriculum, The Open UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/474472015-10-23T05:14:11Z2015-10-23T05:14:11ZPart-time students feel squeezed out by universities obsessed with teenagers<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/99007/original/image-20151020-32264-lnfu9u.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">The number of part-time students has dropped off a cliff. </span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Studying at night via Marcos Mesa Sam Wordley/www.shutterstock.com</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Part-time higher education in the UK is <a href="https://theconversation.com/enrolments-slide-further-for-forgotten-part-time-undergraduates-36325">contracting dramatically</a>. The decline in numbers is critical, especially in England, where there were <a href="https://www.hesa.ac.uk/sfr210">47% fewer part-time students</a> in 2013-14 than there were in 2010. In my <a href="https://www.heacademy.ac.uk/resource/shoe-horned-and-side-lined-challenges-part-time-learners-new-he-landscape">recent research</a>, surveying part-time students who have hung on, I found they feel sidelined by their institutions and are crying out for more flexibility to cope with their studies. </p>
<p>The crisis in part-time higher education is predominantly, but not exclusively, an English problem, set against <a href="http://www.suttontrust.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/07/ICOF-REPORT-2015.pdf">changes to fee structures</a> that have resulted in part-time fees tripling since 2012, and no maintenance grants for part-time study. </p>
<p>The sub-degree market – those certificates, diplomas and awards of institutional credit which offer a less intensive higher education alternative for those mature students unable to commit to a full-time degree – has <a href="https://www.hesa.ac.uk/sfr210">experienced the steepest decline, of 55%</a>. Foundation degree numbers – those innovative courses offering vocational and applied routes into higher education for students with non-traditional entry qualifications – have dropped by 18%.</p>
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<span class="caption">Change in UK-domiciled part-time undergraduate entrants, compared to 2002–03, by country of institution.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.universitiesuk.ac.uk/highereducation/Documents/2013/PowerOfPartTime.pdf">Universities UK.</a></span>
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<p>All this as applications for full-time higher education are buoyant, <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-22354324">recovering from a dip</a> in 2012. </p>
<p>The fall in the Celtic nations is less pronounced, <a href="http://www.open.ac.uk/wales/sites/www.open.ac.uk.wales/files/files/ecms/wales-pa/web-content/It's-About-Time-2014-English.pdf">although Wales</a> has experienced a 24% drop in the last five years despite a commitment from the Welsh Assembly to widen access for those with “protected characteristics”. <a href="http://www.universitiesuk.ac.uk/highereducation/Documents/2013/PowerOfPartTime.pdf">Scotland also</a> saw a 7% drop from 2013-14 while numbers in Northern Ireland have dropped by 5% in the same period.</p>
<h2>Barriers for part-time students</h2>
<p>My <a href="https://www.heacademy.ac.uk/resource/shoe-horned-and-side-lined-challenges-part-time-learners-new-he-landscape">research</a> for the Higher Education Academy looked at the experiences of part-time higher education learners across the UK, based on 3,000 survey responses and 50 phone interviews. </p>
<p>This is a very diverse, heterogeneous group, studying part-time due to a wide range of personal circumstances and competing work commitments. Most are women, often juggling caring responsibilities alongside studying. Many were the first in their families to embark on higher education, and 22% reported disabilities or long-term health impairments. Many respondents managing mental health problems, medication, hospital visits and declining mobility viewed part-time study as a lifeline. </p>
<p>Only 15% reported getting support from their employers for their studies. Almost all admitted they would prefer to be studying full-time, feeling they had missed out. But they could not imagine being able to afford to study without working. They needed flexibility to meet their learning circumstances, they were debt-averse, and they made calculations that the investment of time and money would translate into some personal transformation, whether in aspirations for a better job or the kind of lifestyle they desired.</p>
<h2>Side-lined and shoe-horned</h2>
<p>Any notion of students “choosing” to study part-time were seen as a meaningless illusion. Learners were faced with a Hobson’s choice in which there is only really one option: it was either part-time or nothing, since the costs associated with full-time were too great, and students feared the perceived inflexibility of full-time higher education. Two key motivations for studying part-time emerged from the research – improving employment prospects, followed closely by those who identified themselves as grabbing a second chance, having missed out at age 18.</p>
<p>Individual students were desperate for greater flexibility to enable them to cope with their studies. Over a third reported missing a formal element of their course due to personal and work demands. They bemoaned feeling part-timers were an “inconvenience” in their institutions, “side-lined” and “shoe-horned” into existing full-time structures. </p>
<p>They took employability seriously, but on their own terms. They wanted to develop skills and confidence to get a job or improve their job prospects, but in a highly personalised way, not represented by diktats aimed at 21-year-olds aspiring for graduate careers. They often did not identify themselves as “students”, nor did they feel part of a student community, and felt isolated from institutional support structures provided for full-timers. </p>
<p>They did not engage with the plethora of information, advice and guidance aimed at 18 year olds, and as a consequence they were often ignorant of qualification pathways, course workload or even sources of financial support. All this varied by disciplines, with some courses appearing to offer very different part-time student experiences.</p>
<h2>Not all students are the same</h2>
<p>Part-time higher education has a crucial role to play in social mobility. Opportunities to study part-time are at the forefront of widening access to the most disadvantaged adults, those vulnerable non-traditional students attempting a tentative first step into higher education. Part-time study <a href="http://www.universitiesuk.ac.uk/highereducation/Pages/UUKreviewofparttimeeducation.aspx#.VieYdaIb5hY">has a positive affect</a> on the economy, with mature students (the vast majority of whom are in full-time employment) seeking better careers in a global economy. </p>
<p>So any diminution of part-time opportunity affects precisely those groups that policies aimed at increasing social mobility are meant to address. But by their very nature, part-time students are a hard-to-reach group, and their needs are drowned out by a policy myopia which is ideologically infatuated with full-time higher education for 18 year olds paying high fees. </p>
<p>If the part-time sector is not to be inadvertently left to wither away, politicians need to create incentives for universities and colleges to prioritise part-time higher education as an attractive choice to meet the needs of the most disadvantaged students.</p>
<p>In order to create a flourishing education culture, universities and colleges need to listen more to part-timers. They should offer them the flexibility they need, recognise their learning priorities will be different, and celebrate their contribution to a more diverse student body.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/47447/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>John Butcher received funding from Higher Education Academy for this research. He work for the Open University which teaches only part-time students.</span></em></p>The number of part-time students has dropped dramatically and even those who get to university feel side-lined.John Butcher, Senior Lecturer/Deputy Director Access Curriculum, The Open UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/363252015-01-19T11:04:01Z2015-01-19T11:04:01ZEnrolments slide further for ‘forgotten’ part-time undergraduates<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/69278/original/image-20150116-5206-hzdywg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Part-time student enrolments have massively fallen across the UK. </span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/uonottingham/6673308957/sizes/l">unonottingham</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/">CC BY-NC-SA</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>We were told that the 2012 changes to England’s student funding system would boost the number of part-time students at university. But new <a href="https://www.hesa.ac.uk/sfr210">data</a> released by the Higher Education Statistics Agency confirm that such predictions were wide of the mark. In fact, there were 30% fewer new, part-time, first degree enrolments on undergraduate programmes in 2013-14 than there were in 2011-12.</p>
<p>Prior to 2012, part-time study was rising in popularity. The <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/the-browne-report-higher-education-funding-and-student-finance">Browne Report</a> into English higher education recommended that those studying for an undergraduate degree part-time should be given the same access to funding, proportionately, as those studying full-time. The previous method of up-front fees, it claimed, “put people off from studying part-time and stopped innovation”. </p>
<p>The subsequent government white paper, <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/higher-education-students-at-the-heart-of-the-system--2">Students at the Heart of the System</a>, accepted Browne’s recommendations about finance for part-time study and went further still, promising “a more diverse sector with more opportunities for part-time or accelerated courses, sandwich courses, distance learning and higher-level vocational study”. According to free-market logic, with universities deregulated and therefore more responsive to student demand, flexible learning would become the norm and part-time enrolments would rise.</p>
<h2>Big drop in part-time students</h2>
<p>The graph below tells a different story. The annual number of new students enrolling part-time on a first degree fell by 15,820 (20.3%) in 2012-13, then by a further 8,005 (12.88%) in 2013-14. As a result, the proportion of all new undergraduate students that are enrolling on a part-time basis has dropped from 14.11% to 10.37%.</p>
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<p>The slide is a cause for concern because many part-time students are “from backgrounds under-represented at universities”, according to the <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/higher-education-students-at-the-heart-of-the-system--2">white paper</a>. They are the “<a href="http://www.academia.edu/4742927/Part-time_undergraduate_student_funding_and_financial_support_in_England">forgotten</a>” group in higher education, their absence not receiving the attention it might because of a tendency for public discourses to <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/education/2014/jan/31/university-applications-record-high-ucas">focus</a> on more positive trends among young, full-time students. </p>
<p>As the second graph shows, although enrolment rates for new, full-time, first degree undergraduates dipped immediately after the fee rise, they recovered in 2013-14. This recovery allows claims to be made that higher fees do not deter demand for higher education. Applications from lower socio-economic students also appear to have <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2014/may/27/higher-fees-dont-mean-fewer-working-class-students-look-at-the-uk-for-proof">risen</a> within this group since 2012. However, enrolment rates for new, part-time, first degree undergraduates have not recovered from their dip.</p>
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<p>Even for full-time students, it may be premature to hail the 2012 system an unqualified success. A lack of meaningful labour market alternatives to higher education may skew the figures for the current crop of students. The number of young people choosing to study abroad, though still lower than leaders of independent schools <a href="http://www.independent.co.uk/news/education/uk-students-are-shunning-home-universities-to-study-abroad-headteachers-claim-9976025.html">imply</a>, continues to <a href="https://twitter.com/UniversitiesUK/status/555315432111222784">rise</a>. But, as a former leader of the National Union of Students Aaron Porter <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-30684462">points out</a>, the main reason to be cautious is that the data relied upon for good-news participation narratives generally exclude the huge number of students who are not full-time.</p>
<h2>Why are part-time students disappearing?</h2>
<p>Claire Callender, a higher education policy researcher at Birkbeck College, <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/education/2011/mar/29/student-loans-part-time-undergraduates">notes</a> that part-time students face problems with eligibility criteria, and that employers may be increasingly reluctant to fund higher education courses as fees rise. Campaigns by the government and by individual universities may implicitly target the “typical” (young, full-time) student.</p>
<p>Drives like Universities UK’s “<a href="http://www.universitiesuk.ac.uk/highereducation/Pages/PartTimeStudyCampaign.aspx#.VLfau8m8ra8">Part-Time Matters</a>” aim to address the problem through clearer communication to those considering part-time study. Yet opportunities are not distributed equally between institutions – and more selective universities may find part-time students limit the speed with which they can launch and withdraw degree programmes, as market forces ostensibly demand.</p>
<h2>Burden of fees</h2>
<p>The effect of higher fees on part-time students is also poorly understood. It could be that those students most likely to be part-time are also those most likely to worry about placing themselves in substantial debt. The Sutton Trust charity <a href="http://www.suttontrust.com/researcharchive/payback-time/">demonstrated</a> that the 2012 student loan system requires that graduates pay off their debt for longer than under the previous system, and that they repay more in total. </p>
<p>Budding part-time students may be deterred disproportionately, especially if their opportunity cost is greater because they already have work. Cost-benefit analyses soon become less straightforward, and the “graduate premium”, so often <a href="http://ukrecruiter.co.uk/2014/07/31/worth-going-university/">cited</a> by advocates of the 2012 system, becomes less directly relevant.</p>
<p>The <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/higher-education-students-at-the-heart-of-the-system--2">government white paper</a> characterised the 2012 funding changes as “a major step in terms of opening up access” and predicted that “up to around 175,000” part-time students would benefit. In reality, the <a href="https://www.hesa.ac.uk/dox/pressOffice/sfr210/071277_student_sfr210_1314_table_2.xlsx">opposite</a> has happened. This fall in part-time undergraduate enrolments, if not reversed, will have significant consequences for the make-up of higher education and, in due course, for the nation’s workforce.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/36325/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Steven Jones does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>We were told that the 2012 changes to England’s student funding system would boost the number of part-time students at university. But new data released by the Higher Education Statistics Agency confirm…Steven Jones, Senior Lecturer, Manchester Institute of Education, University of ManchesterLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.