Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, with reference to her Department's report, Unlocking Talent, Fulfilling Potential: a plan for improving social mobility through education, published in December 2017, Cm 9541, what funding will be allocated to support widening participation in higher education of people aged 21 and above.

Government wants to make sure that higher education is available to all who wish to pursue it and this includes mature students. That is why, in our last guidance to the Director of Fair Access, we asked that institutions take into account the needs of older learners and make more effort to attract mature students as part of their Access Agreements. Higher Education Providers expect to spend around £860 million for 2018/19 on activity to widen participation.

In addition, the government is looking into ways of promoting and supporting a wide variety of flexible and part-time ways of learning which should have the effect of making higher education a more attractive option to mature students. For instance, we are consulting on how we make accelerated degrees more widely available. These shorter degree courses offer various benefits to all students - including lower costs, more intensive study, and a quicker entry or return to the workplace.

We have also taken steps to help those wanting to study part-time, often a mode of study preferred by mature students, by offering financial support in the form of loans to cover fees and maintenance costs.

The National Collaborative Outreach Programme (NCOP) is targeted at 18 year olds to support the government goal in doubling the proportion of young people from disadvantaged backgrounds in higher education by 2020. The NCOP targets those areas of the country where progression into higher education is both low overall and lower than expected given typical GCSE attainment rates in order to address a potential lack of aspiration among school leavers. A key element of the NCOP is the partnership between universities and schools.