Part-time students need support too
Part Time Matters, the campaign to raise the profile of part-time study and reverse the dramatic decline in adult participation in higher education, has stimulated conversations in common rooms and on social media.
One area which has received little attention is the question of targeted support for HE students with responsibilities for the care of children and adult dependants. The Department for Business, Innovation and Skills is conducting a review of this form of support. It matters for a number of reasons, not least because it is an opportunity to address the unfair restriction of these grants to full-time students.
The government has taken some positive steps towards levelling the playing field between part-time and full-time undergraduate students, including extending eligibility to tuition fee loans to some part-time students for the first time. But, as the 40% reduction in part-time students numbers since 2010 suggests, there is much more to be done to make higher study an attractive and accessible option for mature students (who make up the vast majority of part-time student numbers). One key area is the current restriction of maintenance grants to full-time students; another is the restriction of targeted support grants to full-timers.
The government’s intention, set out in its call for evidence on targeted support, ‘to ensure that those with the ability to study at HE level have the appropriate support to enable them to do so’, is, of course, laudable. Interventions such as the Adult Dependants’ Grant and the Childcare Grant are essential if everyone who has the potential to benefit from HE is to have the opportunity to make the most of their abilities. The range of grants currently available represents a significant help for some groups of students in overcoming the barriers to access they face. However, NIACE is concerned that significant numbers of adults, and in particular part-time students who could potentially benefit, remain excluded from this form of financial support.
This is troubling not only because part-time students are more likely than their full-time counterparts to have responsibility for the care of children or adult dependants, but because, as the recent fall in part-time student numbers suggests, they are also more likely to be put off by increases in the cost of study. Students with caring responsibilities face a range of extra responsibilities and have extra costs to bear, in addition to the pressures and stresses of caring. There is a risk that, without adequate, properly targeted support, such students would find themselves seriously disadvantaged in terms of access to higher education.
NIACE would like to see eligibility to targeted support extended to part-time students. We would also like to see the government working closely with OFFA and individual institutions to ensure a more consistent offer of support so that all students, no matter where they study, have access to the same opportunities and are not disadvantaged by any lack of flexibility.
It is critical too that prospective mature and part-time students understand what support is available to them, both through government and from institutions. At present, information, advice and guidance on HE for adults is somewhat patchy. Adult students, who often don’t have access to either family or institutional support when making their decisions about higher study, need access to tailored information, advice and guidance, in a form which they can understand and to which they can relate.
These would be positive moves, but they will not by themselves reverse the trend of decline in adult participation in HE. The government should also consider whether a relaxation in the eligibility criteria for loans and maintenance grants might be appropriate levers for reversing this decline. There are strong economic reasons for doing so, in addition to the powerful argument from social justice. We all stand to benefit from the skills part-time students acquire; skills which, often, they make use of in relatively poorly paid professions such as teaching and nursing. In considering eligibility to support grants we also do well to remember the enormous saving to the economy represented by the free social care work done by carers, and the huge social benefits that flow from their contribution. They deserve a fair and equal opportunity to benefit from higher education.
NIACE’s response to the call for evidence on targeted support for higher education students is now available to read online.
