Part-time study is transformative, for adults and their communities, and can be a radical antidote to the inequalities that grow across a lifetime.
Our guest writer is Tom Sperlinger, director of lifelong learning for English at Bristol University
The silences in a manifesto can be revealing. For all its length, the Conservatives’ ‘invitation’ is short on detail about higher education. There is no room for two long-standing commitments, to a “fairer deal for part-time and mature students” and a “clearer pathway from vocational routes into further and higher education”; both were listed on the Tory website until the day of their manifesto launch.
The Labour manifesto, meanwhile, boasts:
“We have eliminated up-front fees paid by students.”
This is not true: part-time students still pay up front. In 2010/11, a student on a course that’s 50 per cent full-time will pay up to £1,645 a year, with no access to a student loan and a maximum grant of £820. So, if a student earns £17,000 per year, they pay the whole fee; if the student is on a lower income they pay up to £825 up front.
Labour claims that:
“In the coming years, priority in the expansion of student places will be given to Foundation Degrees and part-time study, and to science, technology, engineering and mathematics [Stem] degrees, as well as applied study in key economic growth sectors.”
In spite of the emphasis on part-time study there is no commitment to making the funding system ‘fair for all’. Nor is all part-time study likely to be prioritised. Labour’s proposals would continue the trend towards government deciding which subjects should be studied, with a debatable sense of what the economy requires.
As Simon Jenkins wrote in The Guardian:
“Britain has about 600,000 students learning Stem subjects that are mostly vocational and that few of them will practise.”
I run a part-time degree in English Literature at Bristol University. The students are aged from 23 to 68; 12 of 17 (or 70%) of those recruited in 2009 were from areas with ‘low participation’ in higher education (against a university-wide target of 7%). Yet this course is invisible in Labour’s vision, which sees institutions such as Bristol as only for school leavers and implies only (narrowly-defined) vocational options for mature students.
It is unclear what future there would be for arts, humanities, or social science disciplines in part-time (or any other) mode. Higher education is braced for further cuts. Part-time study may look attractive to a new government, to keep student numbers high at relatively low cost. But it can be much more than a means to an end, as last year’s Inquiry into the Future for Lifelong Learning showed. Part-time study is transformative, for adults and their communities, and can be a radical antidote to the inequalities that grow across a lifetime.
No party yet offers such a vision. Labour’s ideas are unimaginative and built on a misleading narrative of past achievements. The Conservatives have quietly dropped progressive commitments. The Liberal Democrats will say more about their policies today – they are committed to abolishing fees for part-time students in five years and to making fee loans available in the meantime. Will they expand on their position – and hold their nerve?
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5 Responses to “We need a fairer deal for part-time students”
Charlotte Alldritt
RT @leftfootfwd: We need a fairer deal for part-time students: http://bit.ly/b29VB3
PMartin
Here’s a better one Tom. I’m currently half-way through my second year of an English Lit PhD. I received AHRC funding to do my masters and then was told half-way through it that there would be a third fewer PhDs funded from year 2008-9. I started my PhD self-funded (without knowing why I was turned down – no feedback at all) and worked 30 hours a week which with tax credits meant I was doing OK and was still managing to fit in enough study-time to make it to my second year. I then took out a career development loan to pay my fees and as my seasonal job was over I had some decent time to study from November onwards. Then came the awful winter (I live in the Highlands) and I had to work on our landlord’s smallholding to help look after his horses. This led to me getting a back problem which means I cannot work at any of the jobs that are available. You would think I could sign on as I have no income at all but as a full-time postgrad I cannot do this. I am too old at 43 to give up on my academic dreams or even go part-time as I have too much debt and my CD loan is structured in such a way that I will be penalised if I make it drag on any longer. So how am I supposed to live and contribute to our academic culture with no money, practically no support, and with a titanic of debt building up (watch out for that iceberg!)? Where does it get me? I even find myself imagining taking an overdose from time to time… What is the point? Why am I putting myself through this???!!!!
Bobbie Neace
We need a fairer deal for part-time students | Left Foot Forward: In 2010/11, a student on a course that's 50 per … http://bit.ly/djXy3G
We need a fairer deal for part-time students « The best Labour blogs
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Pam Blundell
amused that @leftfootfwd part time stud. article http://bit.ly/95yzUr has pic of @leedsucu captioned "part-time students attending lectures"