Part-timers over time

Claire Callender of Birkbeck has just published a small but interesting longitudinal study of part-time students in the UK (http://www.hecsu.ac.uk/futuretrack_part_time_students.htm). A sample of students initially interviewed in 2007-8 were followed up in 2010.
Part-time employment is growing fast. It’s always been true that part-time higher education makes sense as a way of extending opportunities for adults, but that would seem to be even more the case now that so many people (some 8 million) only work part of the week.
However Callender shows that most pt students are working ‘full time’. They fit in on average 13 hours a week of independent study on top of the job – a figure not far short of that reported by ‘full time’ students. This might be a reflection of the maxim ‘if you want something done ask a busy person’. But it also suggests that we urgently need a new set of categories, rather than dividing both employees and students into full and part time: the simple binary division just doesn’t make sense any longer.
The study shows how substantial benefits flow from pt higher education. It is a positive move that pt students are now financed on a similar basis to fulltimers, ie they have access to loans. But because they are often earning already, and some way into their careers, they are likely to be at the repayment threshold of £21K. So it’s a tougher decision for them to incur the steeply increased fees – especially as pt fees have increased much faster than ft ones.