Colleges and universities must be more aware of the needs of part-time students and more flexible in their approach if the rapid decline in part-time learning is to be reversed, a new report says. 

Between 2011-12 and 2017-18, there was a 60 per cent fall in the number of people from England starting a part-time undergraduate course within the UK. 

Unheard: the voices of part-time adult learners, published today by the Higher Education Policy Institute (Hepi) thintank, explores the reasons why many adults are turning away from part-time education.

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When interviewing adults for the report, Hepi says that three areas of concern dominated: prior obstacles to learning, the cost and the inflexibility of institutions. 

Part-time students ‘shoehorned in’

Many said that they thought they were simply too old or too busy with a family for part-time education, and others said that they couldn’t afford the fees alongside paying rent or a mortgage. Some said that they felt part-time students were not “considered as a demographic in their own right”, and that they were “shoehorned, lumped with the full-timers”.

Adults who had enrolled on to part-time courses revealed that they were hugely anxious about going back into education, and taking part in lectures and seminars - and with some saying they struggled to focus for half an hour. However, others said that going back into education had reinvigorated a love for learning, and had helped them to get their lives back on track. 

John Butcher, the author of the report, says that a new approach to part-time learning is overdue. 

“Otherwise, part-time students will continue to be peripheral, feeling like tourists passing through higher education but knowing they do not really belong,” he adds

In his proposals, he suggests that a three-pronged approach is needed. 

Raising awareness

Dr Butcher says that university admissions systems need to be evaluated to ensure that they are fit for purpose for applications from part-time learners and that clear and accessible information must be available from a “credible source” and promoted to ensure that adults see the value in returning to education.

He also urges the government to introduce a Lifelong Learning Loan Allowance that all adults would be eligible for to lessen the kind of anxiety about cost - and for all graduates to be eligible for one year of additional funded study. 

Institutional flexibility

Dr Butcher says that a step-on, step-off system would offer part-time learners increased portability. He adds that ensuring that accelerated part-time study programmes which teach across the summer are subject to the same fee caps as accelerated full-time study would strength flexible study choices.

He also says that there needs to be an increase in the availability and status of qualifications at level 4 and 5 to offer adults a more accessible route, and an end to the equivalent and lower qualification barrier to provide more personalised opportunities.

Sector drivers 

Mr Butcher says that the language used in higher education policy must be refreshed to avoid assumptions that all HE students are full-time and that any proposals to increase post-18 education opportunities should include grants for disadvantaged students. 

Claire Sosienski Smith, NUS vice-president for higher education, said that Hepi’s report highlighted  the need for policies which take into account not just the structure of part-time learning but the lives of part-time students.

She said: “These students can often be left behind by universities, and the decline in part-time numbers since tuition fees were raised is frankly shocking.

“The only way to address this and to improve conditions for part-time students is through a National Education Service which is funded, accessible and lifelong.”