Grandma goes to uni

“You’re lovely. You remind me of my grandma.” It wasn’t quite the sort of welcome I was hoping for at my first social event as a mature student two years ago. Remind me of my mother – I’ll accept it. Grandma – seems a step too far. However, doing the maths, it does figure. As a (very) mature student of over 60, I could indeed at a pinch have been grandma to the mostly 22-year olds on my humanities master’s at a top British university.

Being a mature student at such an elevated age was a strange and daunting experience. Technology has zoomed at quite a pace since I did my undergraduate degree. I wrote my undergrad dissertation on a typewriter – I was proud that it was an electric one, oh so advanced. Goodness only knows how I did referencing – if I even did any. I’m too scared to look back at that dissertation, which is gathering dust in my attic. Did I put any quotations in my essays I wonder? I would have had to copy those quotes down in longhand from books or journals in the library which I often couldn’t even withdraw. My fave hangout in those days was a library section called “dead periodicals”, and I was usually the only person there. No wonder the younger generation look at me today like someone just out of the Ark. I lived it, but even I find it hard to believe it.

Of course we’ve all had to get to grips with technology in our jobs, and as a news agency journalist I was used to reading fast, thinking fast and typing fast, all helpful attributes for academic study. But I have to admit now, though didn’t want to admit then, that I wasn’t too familiar even with basic programmes like Word, as we used a proprietorial editing system at work. I didn’t even know how to highlight PDFs, for example. Those 22-year-olds were streets ahead of me.

On the master’s, we were reading theoretical papers by people who often hadn’t even published when I was first at uni. Or if they had published, my university was not avant-garde enough to have us reading them. And as for the language they were written in…it took me the two years of the course, which I did part-time, to understand that there is a whole jargon of literary and cultural theory being used on the assumption that you’ve already read a bunch of theorists and understand their language. Michel Foucault, RIP, was one of the main culprits – genealogy, discourse, anyone?

 It’s hard to say quite why I chose to do a master’s when I did. The costs are high to study in Britain these days, even for domestic students. I’m trying not to think about how many luxury holidays I could have had for the price of the fees. However, after years of French evening classes I felt I wanted to delve more into the study of literature and history, and more broadly than into French studies alone. I felt the need to write essays which would require me to read books I would never normally read. I wanted to get feedback – though after the return of nine assignments with criticism of anything from my (arguably?) incorrect use of the comma to complaints that my sentences were too short, I may have got less keen on that. I did find the course constantly demanding and stimulating, however, and it’s whetted my appetite for more – I’m starting evening classes at another uni soon.

However, I wonder whether universities are doing enough to attract mature and part-time students. In Britain, fees may not be as high as for private U.S. universities, but they are high compared with elsewhere in Europe, and of course they are even higher for international students, often a mainstay of British master’s programmes. Academics tell me that the high fees, particularly for students from the European Union post-Brexit, along with the geopolitical climate and an increase in visa restrictions in the UK are deterring international students. Meanwhile, young domestic student numbers are also expected to fall due to demographic changes.

So maybe mature students could be filling that gap. Richard Hebblethwaite, head last year of the award-winning mature, part-time and carer student network at University College London, told Yuvoice he found starting a master’s in his 50s intimidating. But he soon settled in, and says that particularly as the British population gets older, universities should be making a commitment to lifelong learning. Mature students have a lot to offer, Hebblethwaite says:

“They’re a little bit more experienced in terms of life and perspectives. Many of them are not backwards in coming forward with ideas and opinions, they work well with other students in terms of project teams, and often they can initiate conversations and discussions within lectures or seminars.”

Lots of my friends and former colleagues, many much younger than me, say they would like to take a master’s degree when they retire, or before. But they are shocked to hear the cost.

So for anyone out there who would like to attract more part-time and mature students to their universities, here are my ideas, mostly based on good practice I’ve discovered around the place:

–          Provide catch-up classes ahead of the start of the year for those who’ve been away from studying for a long time.

–          For a master’s which would be full-time over one year, offer a part-time programme over three years, rather than two. It’s particularly hard to do a master’s dissertation, which usually counts for at least one-third of the course, when you are working part-time. Studying part-time while working is hard work but makes it more affordable. More time to complete would be a bonus.

–          Put modules all on one day and make it clear which day that is, so people know when they need to take time off from work for the course.

–          Spread compulsory modules evenly over the course, so part-time students in particular aren’t faced with too many modules bunched up together.

–          Masters’ degrees are expensive, so consider offering stand-alone modules, rather than the whole degree. Some universities are doing this already.

–          Offer extra-curricular short courses, ideally with some essay-writing and feedback built in. Again, this is already on offer, but not very much.

I’m sure there are all sorts of logistical reasons why these ideas aren’t feasible for many universities, but if even some of them were put into practice more regularly, I think you would soon see more than one “grandma”, or even grandpa, in a student seminar near you.