Part-time now: Barriers to part-time learning in the new HE landscape

The part-time HE sector in the UK is large – nearly 250 000 people in the UK were studying part-time in 2011-12 – but the sector has contracted by more than 40% in the last two years and this contraction is being felt differently across the four UK nations.

There is a critical need to analyse and compare experience of part-time study with particular concern for the substantial barriers faced by part-time students including caring responsibilities disabilities and working and learning. This HEA-funded project will build on current collaborative research in Wales between the Open University and NUS Wales extending this successful research to colleagues from ARC Network and geographically across the rest of the UK.

This project aims to:

• identify and explore in detail the student experience of barriers to part-time learning in UK HE
• expand the evidence base of what it feels like to be a part-time student now
• make a substantial contribution to live and ongoing debates about part-time study
• better understand the role part-time provision plays in addressing access to HE and participation issues for different groups of non-traditional learners
• deliver a more detailed understanding of the diversity of part-time students and a deeper understanding of their range of experiences needs and identities
• deliver and analyse a UK-wide survey of part-time students
• deliver a range of focus groups and interviews with part-time students from a wide range of backgrounds in order to more fully explore the personal motivations and experiences of individual part-time learners