Landmark review expected to recommend extension of loans to cover upfront fees for part-time students
Thousands of school leavers facing disappointment in this week's clearing crisis are being warned they may have to abandon the dream of going away to university, and instead get a degree by staying at home, getting a job and studying part-time.
A landmark review into university finance is expected to recommend that student loans, now only available to those on full-time courses, are extended to part-time students to cover the fees they must currently pay upfront, the Guardian has learned. Such a move would pave the way for a major change in the way university education is viewed, with a three-year stint in a new city no longer a given.
With up to 170,000 A-level students expected to miss out in the scramble for university places after results are published on Thursday, there has already been a surge in the number of school leavers applying for part-time study at the Open University, which offers distance learning, and Birkbeck University in London, which specialises in evening degree courses.
Universities are limited by a strict cap on the number of full-time places they can offer, and face fines if they over-recruit. But there is no such limit to the numbers they can take on for part-time study.
Senior university leaders today called on students to consider all options if they fail to get in, warning that the crisis is set to continue as funding cuts bite.
One advantage of part-time study is that because fees are paid upfront, students do not leave with huge debts. The Browne review, which will report in October, is understood to be poised to suggest students should be eligible for loans to cover fees, while continuing to pay their own maintenance costs.
Patrick McGhee, vice-chancellor of the University of East London, said staff had already seen an increase in inquiries about part-time courses, and expected to see more from students who had been unable to secure full-time places this year.
"Individuals now have to be flexible in terms of where they study and to some extent exactly what they study," he said, warning that the situation next year is likely to be even tougher. "If part-time is the option that emerges, it's an option people should look at seriously."
The vice-chancellor of Bedfordshire University, Les Ebdon, suggested students could enrol with the OU or go to their local university while working part-time. "One door has been shut in the face of this year's generation. We've opened another one. It's a bit like getting in through the window. It's not as easy as coming in through the frontdoor but if you're committed enough you can get in."
At the university of Westminster, vice-chancellor Geoffrey Petts said the push from Labour to increase student numbers, while welcome, had led to an expectation that university education meant studying full time away from home.
"This sea of students has had the build-up to going to university rammed down their throats for the last five years and all of a sudden a large number of them aren't going to make it," he said.
The Open University has seen a 21% increase in the number of 18-year-olds reserving places on degree courses in the last year, and a quarter of its new undergraduates are now aged under 25.
Two years ago Birkbeck had no applications from 18- and 19-year-olds; this year it had 154, and young people represent a higher proportion of applicants than ever before.
The total number of applications for part-time undergraduate degrees was up 9% over the last year, but among the under 25s the increase was 22%.