The part-time experience?

1. The part-time experience? • Keys • Caretakers • Cold coffee

2. Recruitment and Admission of part-time students SPA Seminar Northern Ireland - 12 April 2011 Leslie Currie, Senior Project Officer, SPA

3. We’ll look at the • National picture • Northern Ireland context • SPA Good Practice Statement • Market • Way forward

4. UK wide - Higher education students, UK-domiciled, analysed by qualification aim, 2007/08

5. Issues • Increased interest by governments • Proposed changes in financial support • UCAS interest • HEIs organise PT admissions in many different ways • IAG

6. Northern Ireland - Part-time students by HEI, level & mode of study 2009/10

7. What is Fair Admissions? Schwartz - 5 principles: • Transparent admissions requirements • Selection of students on the basis of achievement and potential. Students should be able to complete the course. • Reliable and valid assessment methods • Minimising barriers to applicants • Professional staff, underpinned by appropriate institutional structures and processes http://www.admissions-review.org.uk/downloads/finalreport.pdf Quality Assurance Agency (QAA) - Code of Practice http://www.qaa.ac.uk/academicinfrastructure/codeOfPractice/section10/default.asp Fair admissions also applies to part-time admissions

8. Part-time admissions & recruitment - SPA’s recommendations A core part of an HEI’s activity Definition as wide as possible Strategic commitment by HEIs – engagement of senior management Recruitment and admissions part of established academic and administrative procedures and with appropriate policies. IT and reporting systems integrated with main system. Data collected and monitored. Applicants - a single clear point of contact with institution.

9. Part-time admissions & recruitment - SPA’s recommendations Financial support - equal support to PT students. Funding arrangements - should not discourage HEIs from offering PT courses. Recruitment and marketing activities by HEIs should include PT opportunities. Information on PT - easily available at institution and national level. Advisers should provide advice & guidance on PT possibilities. Support and transition arrangements for part-time students must be in place. The needs of employers should be considered by institutions.

10. Part-time recommendations • 8.6 Changing the funding model … a simplified system that better reflects the need for part-time, modular study to ensure flexibility, adaptability and responsiveness in higher education. • Expert Groups recommend • Multiple transition routes into and out of higher education • Curricula and Credit Frameworks - to maximize accessibility to and progression within higher education • Funding to be reviewed; greater incentives for HEIs to provide part time courses and encourage people currently in employment to enter HE • The Department to address …student loans for part-time study to facilitate the changing balance between full-time and part-time study … likely to occur in the coming years. • Consultation document on the development of a higher education strategy for Northern Ireland, 2011

11. Motivation • ‘…policy can enable and support participation, but it can only directly encourage it to a limited extent.’ (6.5) People will tend to participate in learning when policy encourages: • Some protection from financial risk • Flexible provision • Peer and academic support for learners • Clear information about how learning can benefit the learner (6.10) • Looking to Learn: Investigating the Motivations to Learn and the Barriers Faced by Adults Wishing to Undertake Part-Time Study • Scottish Government, March 2006 • http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Publications/2006/03/09075850/0

12. The assumption that everybody should be learning seems to slide quite easily into the belief that everybody wants to learn all of the time. (1.23) The structures and policies used to frame lifelong learning and participation are often left over from an era of highly differentiated education, and perpetuate rigid divisions between different types of learning such as formal and informal, or full-time and part-time. The highly diverse - and sometimes arbitrary seeming - nature of the entry requirements for different courses is not optimal for encouraging participation. (6.15) Looking to Learn: Investigating the Motivations to Learn and the Barriers Faced by Adults Wishing to Undertake Part-Time Study, Scottish Government, March 2006 http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Publications/2006/03/09075850/0

13. Challenges To an HEI Is it worth the cost of offering it? Will it always be excluded from MASN? Who runs it? Can’t it be left to departments? Surely the centre doesn’t have to bother? Aren’t PT students all mature and with lower qualifications? Or executives on distance learning? Is it truly part of a flexible pattern, allowing students in and out? What will be the implications if UCAS introduce a PT admissions product? What about the OU?

14. Challenges To an adviser Applicants don’t think it’s a real option, equal with full-time If they follow a PT option, students will be financially disadvantaged How do you find information – at all levels, national and HEI? To an applicant Is it for interest – or for fun? Am I going to get a reward which outweighs the time, money and effort I’ll put into it? Am I really and tangibly supported by my employer? How do I decide on my options?

15. Over to you • Infrastructure • Information for applicants • Entry and admissions routes • Progression and flexibility • Structures within institutions • Legacy and mission • Market and motivation • Why should people do it? • How do you talk to them? • Employers – what do they need?