Could more accessible part time courses make UK university numbers rise again?

Could more accessible part time courses make UK university numbers rise again?

At the end of January, reports of a decline in UK university students began to emerge. On the 29th, a story by the BBC stated that, ‘The number of British students at UK universities has fallen for the first time in recent history…from 1.97 million in 2007 to 1.96 million last year,’ despite a rise in the amount of international students enrolling. So how can universities turn the tables back and make our lecture halls more appealing to home-grown academics of the future?
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nAs the BBC highlights, the major contributing factor to the fall comes from the figures for students studying part-time. Between 2007 and 2008, the number for the overall UK fell by three percent, with the biggest decline in Wales (nine percent). This promptly caused the Shadow Innovation, Universities and Skills Secretary, David Willets, to criticize the “raw deal” offered to students who want to study part-time.
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nIn Scotland, where numbers of part-time students have fallen by three percent, there are further reasons as to why this problem needs to be addressed. Today (February 9th) The Sunday Herald reported that Scottish universities could stand to lose ‘£50 million a year if Westminster insists on tough new visa rules for international students, according to several influential educational bodies and senior university officials.’ The proposals mean that student visas will last a maximum of four years, and will need to be renewed if the course exceeds this time limit (for example, the duration of a course in Medicine tends to last five years).
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nBoth these problems seem to suggest that a focus on accessibility for part-time and long distance learning students might be needed. In the first case, the very nature of e-learning or online education lends itself very well to students who wish to study part-time. Most notably, it is the ease by which students can plan to work when they want to without the need of having to attend lectures in a traditional lecture theatre, that is the biggest pull factor.
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nFor Scotland, if the government’s Visa plans go through, now seems like the perfect time to adapt and perfect their e-learning options for students from other countries. It seems that one of the methods to maintain the growth of international students that the UK is already seeing, might be by assuring them that online study is as worthwhile as traditional learning. Then, one would hope, the appeal of already renowned Scottish institutions would not be diminished by a misplaced distrust of new technologies.
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Posted Date: 2009-03-05 03:35:15′);