By Hinna Abid, Doctoral Candidate, School of Education, University of Sheffield
This blog is part of our NEON Summer Symposium 2024 series.
There has been a considerable decline in the number of mature male students since 2012 (see figure), when £9000/- tuition fees were introduced, with further replacement of maintenance grants with loans. Particularly focusing on English universities, this decline is even more for mature male students as compared to mature female students. What makes this situation even harder to address is that HESA, the Higher Education Statistics Agency does not provide separate data on mature male students.
Potholes in Problem Identification
In addition to the lack of statistical data explicitly on mature male students, it is also imperative to highlight problematic areas arising due to limited literature, standardised institutional plans as well as policy documents, all of which hinder access to detailed information:
- Limited Literature – with the exception of a few studies (Burke, 2006; Egerton, 2001; Gannon, 2014; Laming et al., 2019) the overall literature drawing explicitly on the educational experiences of mature male students is limited.
- Access & Participation Plans – The current Access and Participation Plans of universities give limited information regarding access, continuation and progress of mature students in universities. For instance, the Access and Participation Plans of two universities involved in the study shows decline in the continuation rate of mature students as compared to young students, however, this is captured under the broad generic term “mature”, not further categorising these students on the basis of different age groups, gender, disability, ethnicity or caring responsibilities.
- Dependents on Entry Data – HESA in England and Wales, unlike Scottish and Northern Irish Higher Education Providers (HEPs), do not require to collect ‘dependents on entry’ data from students (Moreau & Kerner, 2012; Moreau, 2015; JISC Data Analytics, 2020), treating the caring aspect of students invisibly. This is even more so the case for mature male students as care responsibilities are normally explored from a gender-biased perspective of females, ignoring how this may impact males also.
An Insight into the Experiences of Mature Male Students
To address these gaps, my research, through a longitudinal study design, explores the experiences of 15 mature male students studying at three Russell group universities. In doing so, the following key themes emerged:
- Access Issues – These students are normally first generation, have nominal peer and parental support and return to education after a gap. As shared by a mature male student “it very much felt like just like a barricade…first generation, my family never been to uni, my parents are both working class, there was no, like background of uni. At the start, it’s very much like a solid wall.” The additional societal expectation of being more self-reliant and less needy compared to females, makes access to university information and understanding of the application and registration process viz a viz the fees and funding structures, a complex and complicated endeavour.
- Barriers to Integration – There is a disjuncture between elite university spaces and non-traditional students, where academic practices, clubs, societies, extra-curricular activities, timetables, all are structured to facilitate the traditional 18-year-old young student. As shared by a participant “but when you’ve got to pick up your son and then cook them dinner and go to the bank to sort out your mortgage, it’s not doable. It depends on what you call mature students because somebody’s 21 could be a mature student.” This makes it even more difficult to integrate on the socialising terms of the young, care-free, traditional student, with their age, class, and familial and financial responsibilities adding to the challenge.
- Bespoke Academic Support – Mature male students need tailored support when it comes to academic endeavours, especially within female populated disciplines, where their gender and age alongside their past school experiences further disadvantages them. As shared by a participant “there was me at 45 and twelve 18 year old girls, which is a very odd situation; they are a different class, a different gender, different age.”
- Economic Deprivation Shapes the Academic, the Social and the Future – Restricted finances limit mature male students academically and socially, where the societal gender specific expectation of being the primary income provider requires work commitments (long hours in low paid jobs), affecting them academically, socially and in prospective employment opportunities. You can read the full paper here, published by the Widening Participation and Lifelong Learning.
Small Scale Institutional Processes – Incorporating Small-Scale Interventions in addition to Substantial Funding Propositions
Despite these challenges, my research also identified that alongside substantial changes to funding structures, small-scale processes at institutional level can bring elemental positive changes to the educational journey of mature male students. For instance,
- Effective collaboration of universities with communities, employers, and organisations to promote access and participation information with adults in employment.
- Move towards a more tailored support when it comes to access, retention and progress issues, as the needs of a 40-year-old will be quite different to that of a 25-year-old mature student, be it admission, academic, social, financial or employability prospects.
- Provide perks (e.g. free access to sports facilities) on the basis of a student’s socio-economic status. A student’s socio-economic status should not only be assessed for hardship funds and bursaries but also for the provision of clubs/societies. It may seem as something nominal, however, may have a substantial positive impact on a student’s physical and mental wellbeing, enhancing integration into the university culture also.
- Prioritise mature students with their wealth of prior work experience and skills for university placements to external recruitment. Universities may support mature male students by identifying them also as a disadvantaged group (in addition to other disadvantaged groups; for instance, mature female students, Black and ethnic minority), where these students can use their past knowledge and work skills to earn money.
- Access and Participation Plans should be more detailed, especially within problematic areas. For instance, where statistics show decline in the continuation rate of mature students, universities should further analyse this, based on gender, caring responsibilities, age group, disability, ethnicity to help inform future government policies and Office for Students when targeting interventions.
The issues faced by mature male students cannot be ignored as they, despite the decline, form a substantial part of English universities, however, their issues have remained somewhat invisible in widening access policies. It is elemental to include mature male students as an equally disadvantaged group in widening access and participation.