Education: Part-Time Study

Baroness Bakewell Excerpts

Wednesday 24th July 2013 Grand Committee

Asked By

[Baroness Bakewell]

To ask Her Majesty’s Government what assessment they have made of the potential of part-time study to enable more people to acquire qualifications.

[Baroness Bakewell]

My Lords, I am pleased to introduce this debate today because it is both timely and urgent. It is timely in the sense that it is the end of the summer term, when thousands of bright young people are making plans to take up what is now the accepted route to university qualifications. It is therefore a good time to challenge the assumption that three years’ full-time study, usually residential, at a university is the only way to go. It is urgent because there is a serious crisis in part-time education, which needs to be addressed. I am pleased that even ahead of the Universities UK review that will be published in the autumn, engagement with the matter should be kept in the public awareness and that the campaign, Part-time Matters, is supported by this debate.

I declare my interest: I am president of Birkbeck and have an honorary degree from the Open University—both institutions with a fine and long-standing record of providing part-time study leading to full degrees for their students and world-class champions of the case for lifelong learning.

First, the facts: enrolment figures for part-time study at both graduate and postgraduate level are falling year on year. The number of part-time undergraduate entrants has fallen by 40% since 2010. Following the annual report of the Office for Fair Access—OFFA—for the 2012-13 academic year, its director, Professor Les Ebdon expressed concern about the fall in part-time study and applications from mature students. The university think tank, million+, called on Ministers to launch a high-profile campaign to promote part-time study. The chair of million+, Professor Michael Gunn, declared that,

“there is a real risk of a downward spiral that will depress social mobility and lead to skills shortages in the long term”.

Who are part-time students? In the main, they are older and more likely to be female and less diverse than full-time students. They are also likely to have other commitments, either in public careers out there in the workforce—some 80% of part-time learners are in employment—or with domestic careers as homemakers: women struggling with the work/life balance and hoping to keep their qualifications up to date. There is also a considerable number of retired people who find delight and fulfilment in late-life learning. There is real potential in growing the numbers in this group. Indeed, it has the blessing of David Willetts, the Minister for Universities and Science, who sees scope for older citizens retraining and adding to their skills or simply engaging in retirement in lifelong learning for its own sake. This is far from the standard profile of the student cohort.

Central to the issue is money. Following fee changes in 2012, part-time undergraduate students have had access to fee loans. However, some part-time fees increased in 2012. The Higher Education Funding Council for England, HEFCE, reported that between November 2012 and January 2013—scarcely three months —21 colleges reported a drop in demand for part-time courses because of reluctance to take on student loans. These moves in student numbers are steep and sudden.

So how is money impacting on part-time study applications? First, students seem to be unclear about what scope there is for loans or employer-funding and over what time repayments are to be made. Students, even if they know about it, struggle to navigate the Student Loans Company. Each and every hiccough in the system acts as a deterrent to student applications.

Secondly, the withdrawal of funding for ELQs—equivalent or lower qualifications—came into effect in 2008-09, and in January 2009 David Lammy, then Minister of State for Education, asked HEFCE to draw up an early review of the impact of that policy. The first evidence indicates that overall fundable numbers had already reduced. The most commonly cited area affected by the EFQ ruling is lifelong learning. That can hardly be surprising—you cut the funding and numbers fall away.

Thirdly, the economy of the country has a direct impact on part-time studies. At a time of redundancies and a relatively stagnant economy, individuals are anxious about their jobs and future prospects. They are often asked to work longer hours, which makes part-time study difficult. There is also evidence that employer-funding is on the decline, suggesting that this is something that employers—wrongly, in my view—see as an extra to their core budgets rather than a fundamental part of their employee welfare and development.

How much does any of this matter? It is crucial for several reasons. The known and existing benefits of part-time study are already understood: it increases social mobility by allowing people from poorer backgrounds to access study that they would not be able to afford full-time, and it allows adults who have missed out earlier by taking employment straight from school to rethink and reshape their prospects, consider a change of direction and gain a more fulfilling and self-directed future for themselves. According to the National Institute of Adult Continuing Education, there is evidence that it boosts skill levels and improves employability. The NIACE also tells us that adult learning contributes to better health: evidence exists that taking up courses as an adult increases the chances of giving up smoking and reduces the risk of depression, especially in women. I can thoroughly understand the latter; the risk of social isolation and stress often experienced by young mothers is all too familiar.

If all this sounds a little like mother love and apple pie, a utopian vision in which we all go on learning and feeling and doing better in our lives, I think it brings us to a more wide-reaching discussion about how education as it currently serves this society is formulated and structured, and why it is not answering all our needs. I was brought up short by a grandson who declared to me, “Your generation”—in which I think he also included his parents—“never asked us if we wanted to go to university. It is always assumed that if we pass exams well, we will go on to three years’ residential at a university. No other options are given any serious consideration”. Indeed, they are not. What is more, there is increasing evidence that this current accepted pattern does not always benefit students or learning. Young people can arrive at university already exhausted by the educational template that they have been following. They give evidence of this by a failure to focus, varying attendance and drop-out rates.

There is strong evidence that part-time students are strongly motivated, have a strong sense of intention in their study and a commitment to its helping improve their outlook, their careers and their sense of fulfilment. That is why, in launching this debate today, I hope to start and continue a debate about how to shift the focus of education better to match the needs of those who would be students.

We need government help to do this, and I believe that, with the argument strongly made, we will get a good hearing. At a recent reception for the Part-time Matters campaign, David Willetts spoke encouragingly of his wish to stop the decline of part-time study. But the message has to go further than a reception in the Cholmondeley Room. Schools, heads, teachers, careers advisers and parents should all be aware of part-time study as an option. Trade unions and professional groups, as well as informal organisations like the WI, should be familiar with the existence of part-time study and be aware of what it can offer and how it can be afforded. In this way, we can check the decline and move to boost educational opportunities for those who might otherwise lose out.