Except for access

Playbook covers a fascinating Open University lecture on widening participation

If you were to ask a panel of people working in higher education which group of people they felt were the most overlooked and undervalued part of the university sector, there’s a fair chance that mature and part-time students would be mentioned by many.

When tuition fees in England were tripled under the coalition government, it is well documented that one of the most undesirable knock-on effects was the decimation of what some might term the ‘atypical’ student body. That is, the higher fee regime ushered in the start of what is a continuing decline in the number of students who are not 18-or-19-year-old school leavers.