MATURE STUDENTS in HIGHER EDUCATION:
the Career of a Cohort of Mature Students in a Public Sector Institution.
ALICE ZEITLYN. B.A. (CNAA)
1988
This thesis is submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Philosophy.
Sponsoring Establishment:
Cambridgeshire College of Arts and Technology. June, 1988.
Contents
Contents Page
Chapter 1. Introduction. 1
Chapter 2. Review of Literature. 8
Adult and Continuing Education. 9
Motivation 16
Admission Procedures 26
Class/Gender Differences 32
The "Career" of Mature Students 38
Specific Problems of Mature 40
Students.
Conclusion 43
Footnotes 45
References 46
Chapter 3. Methodology. 48
The Diary Form 58
The Writing-up. 63
Footnotes 66
Chapter 4. CCAT as an Institution. 67
TheCollege and Student Body. 67
Courses Available at Degree Level. 71
Student Union. 74
Conclusion. 77
Footnotes. 80
Chapter 5. Description of Cohort. 81
Age and Gender. 82
Marital Status. 85
Class and Educational Background. 86
Reasons for Returning to H/ed. 91
The School Leavers. 94
Categories of Mature Students. 99
Two Case Histories. 119
Summary. 125
Footnotes. 128
Chapter 6. The Career of M/s. 129
Admission procedures. 131
First year examinations. 137
Continuous assessment. 144
Dissertation and Final examination. 152
Perceptions of m/s. 158
Staff perceptions of m/s. 168
Relationship between m/s and s/l. 178
Life Histories. 186
Summary. 194
Footnotes. 199
Chapter 7. Conclusions and Recommendations. 200
Recommendations. 208
Bibliography. 217
Tables.
1. Age Distribution of Mature Students. 82
2. Marital Status of Mature Students. 85
3. Class and Gender of Mature Students. 87
4. Age, Class and Gender. 87
5. Type of School Attendedby Mature
Students. 89
6. Type of School and Class Distribution. 90
7. Reasons for Returning to Higher Education. 92
8. Vocational and Non-vocational Reasons
by Gender. 93
9. Class and Gender of School Leaver. 95
1O. Type of School Attended by School Leaver 96
11. Type of School and Class Distribution. 96
12. Reasons for Goingoninto Higher
Education. 98
13. Situation of Middle-class,Middle-aged
Married Women with Children. 100
14. Single Parent Families. 109
15. Other Married Students. 112
16. Single Male Students. 117
Appendices: 1. Letters of Introduction. 1
2. Text of questionnaire 5
3. Text of student interviews. 6
4. Text of staff interviews 13
5. Diary Form. 16
6. Establishing a Conceptual 17
Framework.
Abbreviations used Throughout the Text.
C/a = Continuous assessment.
CNAA = Council for National Academic Awards.
UCCA = University Central Council for Admissions.
WEA = Workers' Educational Association.
M/c = Middle class.
W/c = Working class.
A/ed. = Adult education.
F/ed. = Further education.
H/ed. = Higher education.
S/l = School leaver.
ETL = European Thought and Literature.
S/p = Single parent.
Hum/Soc = Humanities and Social Sciences.
M/s = Mature student.
PCAS = Polytechnic Central Admissions System.
CCAT = Cambridgeshire College of Arts and
Technology.
F/t = Full time.
P/t = Part time.
O.U. = Open University.
S.U. = Student union.
