Part-time higher education needs ambition

We are immensely proud of the heritage and missions of our two universities and the pioneering roles they have played widening access to higher education through part-time study.

But without policy reform the vital role of part-time study is now, again, at serious risk.

Minister Robert Halfon’s recent speech included a welcome commitment to address the calamitous 60 per cent decline in part-time undergraduate students in England over the last decade. This decline has been a particularly English phenomenon, for in Wales we have seen part-time numbers increase as a direct result of deliberate policy measures.