Non-Traditional Adult Students: Access, Dropout, Retention and Developing a Learner Identity

Abstract

In recent years, the student population in higher education (HE) institutions in the United Kingdom has become more diverse in terms of age, social class and ethnicity as doors have opened to groups previously under-represented. Changes to the student population have been accompanied by social and economic changes as well as policy interventions so that higher education institutions (HEIs) have been subject to the influences of marketisation and neo-liberalism. For Barnett, these factors have brought about ‘uncertainties as to what it is to be a student’ (2007: 9). Since the 1970s, universities have transformed from being an elite system to a mass HE system not only in the United Kingdom but also across Europe (Trow, 1989). The impact, however, has not been even across the UK HE system, as non-traditional students (both younger and adult) are largely concentrated in the post-1992 universities. Only a small percentage enter the academy of elite universities. The access of non-traditional adult students to universities has been enabled by a period of sustained general growth. However, this may change in the future as the impact of recession is felt by universities together with the recent increase of student fees in the United Kingdom. As a result, new debates have emerged centring on finances, management and the strategic focus of HE at the expense of access and widening participation issues.