More, Different and Better

Last month’s conference of the University Association for Lifelong Learning asked whether part-time study was the new paradigm for higher education. The question is timely. The Browne review made clear that the opening up of more flexible, part-time provision is critical both to widening participation and to economic growth. And, as universities minister David Willetts told a conference of the Association of Colleges last week, part-time study, including part-time higher education in so-called ‘mixed economy’ further education colleges, has a central role to play in creating ‘a dynamic, responsive, higher education system’.

Of course, the previous government also stressed the importance of part-time provision and the need for more flexible learning opportunities. It recognised that the needs of the economy and the needs of students were changing and that the old, exclusively full-time model of higher education was no longer viable. However, some of its policies, and in particular its decision to phase out funding for students who are studying for qualifications that are equivalent to or lower than qualifications they already hold (ELQs), made part-time study more difficult (UUK’s 2010 report, The supply of part-time higher education in the UK, showed that in 2005-06 23 per cent of part-time undergraduates already had a first degree). University participation figures released last week by government show that initial participation rates for part-time students dropped by 1,000 between 2008-09 and 2009-10, suggesting that the trend towards stagnation in part-time student numbers is continuing.

Clearly, worsening economic conditions, and the inequitable funding arrangement for part-time and full-time study, will also have contributed to the decline in part-time undergraduate provision since 2006-07 (ibid.). Currently, of course, part-time students, who made up 39 per cent of all higher education enrolments in 2007-08, still have to pay upfront tuition fees and are ineligible for tuition fee loans. The injustice of this arrangement was recognised by Lord Browne. Principle 6 of his report stated: ‘Part time students should be treated the same as full time students for the costs of learning’. Acknowledging that the system put people off studying part-time and prevented innovation in courses that combine work and study, the report went on to propose the elimination of upfront costs for part-time students, so that ‘a wider range of people can access higher education in a way that is convenient for them’.

The government has agreed that from 2012-13 part-time students studying between 25 and 75 per cent of a full-time course will be eligible for tuition fee loans, effectively levelling the playing field with full-time students. The decision has been widely welcomed, as giving part-time study an opportunity to expand, giving people more flexible opportunities to study and helping the government meet its objectives to upskill the workforce. However, it is clear that that funding cuts are putting part-time study under considerable pressure with many universities closing down their continuing education departments. Glasgow University is the latest to put its provision of continuing education under review, questioning the place of part-time adult learning in the strategic mission of a research-led Russell Group university.

Faced with the additional costs and additional risks of recruiting part-time adult students, many universities, contending with already very testing funding pressures, have opted to scale down this part of their provision. Nevertheless, the case for part-time is strong. There is the economic case, as set out by Browne: ‘Economic growth will rely upon people with high level skills and it is likely to be through part-time rather than full-time study that people in the workforce will be able to retrain and prepare themselves for work in new industries.’ But there is also a powerful case to be made on the basis of the cultural and community contribution universities make, particularly through part-time adult courses.

Part-time continuing education is one of the key ways in which universities fulfil their civic role and give something back to the communities that support them. It is also critical in widening participation. Part-time students are typically older, more likely to be female and are usually employed and have existing family and community commitments. They are more likely to have vocational qualifications or general education qualifications below A-level on entering higher education courses. They are also more likely to be studying in new universities (UUK, 2010).

While many of the biggest universities, including Oxford and Cambridge which retain continuing education departments, remain ‘plugged in’ to their communities and see community engagement as a unequivocally good thing – the argument appears to have been lost with a lot of other major universities which do not see community engagement as a part of their strategic mission.

Many within university lifelong learning fear that things are likely to get worse under the new loans regime. There remains a big question mark over how many of the part-time students who qualify for loans will want to take them out (there are technical difficulties here too as Claire Callender made clear in a recent Guardian piece). The average age at which part-time undergraduates complete their courses is around 40. And most of them earn above £21,000 – which means that they will incur the highest interest rates on their loan repayments.

There are clear implications here for universities’ mission to widen participation. Social mobility is a key issue for the coalition. Clair Murphy, Senior Higher Education Policy Advisor for the Higher Education Funding Council for England (HEFCE), told delegates at UALL that the government was placing emphasis on flexible provision, including part-time, as part of its effort to promote social mobility and widen participation. However, many at the conference were unconvinced, with some deeply critical of what they perceive as a gap between rhetoric and reality – a gap Professor Les Ebdon, Chair of university think-tank Million+ and Vice Chancellor of the University of Bedfordshire, thinks well-illustrated in HEFCE’s 2011-12 funding allocations to universities in England, which saw the wealthiest, most research-intensive and ‘socially exclusive’ universities do best, while the ‘most socially inclusive’, usually newer, universities were being hit hardest by cuts. There is a danger that HEFCE’s redistribution of research funding towards ‘internationally excellent’ and ‘world-leading’ activity will exacerbate this trend to take the global and international (and full-time) to be more important than the local and regional (and part-time).

As Mr Willetts told the AOC conference, making the case to prospective students will be the key challenge for all those who deliver higher education – both established institutions and new providers keen to enter the sector. The change to part-time funding arrangements has been widely welcomed, and rightly so. But loans will have to be made seem attractive (as Claire Callender argues, universities and colleges need to be able to promote a clear and simple message about the advantages of student loans for part-time students) and HEIs of all sorts will need to put part-time study at the heart of their strategic ambition. Part-time could become the new paradigm of HE but much work will need to be done to make this possible and to turn the measured optimism I saw at the UALL conference about the government’s levelling of the playing field between part-time and full-time student funding into heartfelt optimism about the future of part-time HE.