Report

Never Too Late To Learn

22 May 2012

Never Too Late To Learn: Mature Students in Higher Education is a joint report by million+ and NUS which challenges long-standing myths about who participates in higher education in the UK. Contrary to the assumptions of many policy makers and politicians, nearly one in three undergraduates at UK universities are over the age of 21 when they start their first degree.

This report exposes the limitations of funding regimes and social mobility strategies which assume that university is only for younger people with A-level grades. One of the unique strengths of the UK’s university system is the wide-ranging age of students with more than 429,000 mature undergraduates studying at UK universities in 2009-10.

The joint million+ and NUS research project involved analysis of data provided by the Higher Education Statistics Agency, a survey of 3,963 mature students from around the UK undertaken by million+ and NUS in November 2011 and a series of workshops for mature students and university staff held during March and April 2012.

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