Part-time Students and Their Experience of Higher Education (The Cutting Edge)

Tom Bourner; etc.; Andy Reynolds; Mahmond Hamed; Ronald Barnett

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0335093507 ISBN 13: 9780335093502

Publisher: Open University Press, 1991

The part-time sector of higher education is large and growing. So far, however, it has attracted comparatively little attention from researchers or from other writers on higher education. Little is known about who the part-time students are or about their experience in higher education. The fall in the numbers of school leavers in the UK during the 1990s is generating much interest within institutions of higher education in wider access in general and in the further development of part-time degree courses in particular. This book provides an account of who the part-time students are in terms of age, sex, backgrounds, previous education, previous qualifications, sectors of employment and so on. It explains the reasons why students choose their courses of part-time study and identifies the difficulties they encounter. It gives a detailed account of the extent and incidence of student drop-out from part-time degree courses and indicates factors that are systematically related to it. Finally, it identifies examples of good practice in the provision and management of part-time degree courses.