Part-time students and part-time study
Having read Part-time Study in Higher Education by Prof. Christine King it seems that most students, enrolled as full-time or part-time, are actually engaged in part-time study to some degree or other. The distinction between full-time and part-time study, in practice, is breaking down. FT students are increasingly working part-time to fund their studies (66% in term time, 82% in vacations) compared with 83% of PT students who work. A key difference is that FT students fit work around their study and PT students fit study around their work. And of course PT students do not get their fees paid up front.
The report makes it clear that more flexible organisation and curricula would benefit full-time students as well as part-time students. Perhaps HEIs that do not see part-time students as a key area for growth over the next 10 years or so may well find they are in a position to do so anyway on the back of developments aimed to improve provision for their full-time students. As the report says, quoting UniversitiesUK, ‘the high level of flexibility and personalisation in part-time study mode provides a template for the future of the learning experience in higher education’. The report also identifies the need for a flexible HE workforce to support diverse patterns of student needs and expectations, enhance staff scholarship (perhaps to produce open learning content and to develop the skills required to facilitate the use of OLC and blended learning techniques?), and practice based learning. This may provide a variety of different employment possibilities for PGs and even ‘retired’ staff. I hope so!
It also looks like the part-time route to a degree is becoming increasingly attractive to school leavers. 10% of PT students are under 21 and this proportion is growing. If PT students had the same funding model as FT this would expand dramatically I suspect, in which case HEIs that have mainly full-time students may well get far more applications to study part-time and may find they are in a good position to accommodate these due to initiatives already in place to offer flexible, blended and personalised learning.
The development of a flexible curriculum could also benefit strategies designed to respond to other significant opportunities and threats for UK HE, for instance internationalisation, recruiting overseas students and constructing partnerships with other universities. It seems that flexibility in organisation, curriculum and teaching will be the answer to all our problems!
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