By Alan Coleman
The Government has released its plans for student funding and widening participation but appears to have ignored one crucial factor - the students which it intends to burden with its proposals. Some 60 per cent of these are classified as mature but many of the government's initiatives appear to ignore this group.
The quality of life for the mature student has been going downhill since the removal of the Mature Students Grant some ten or so years ago. This small but vital piece of additional funding helped address the extra needs incurred by home and family, something the traditional route student neither needed nor recognised, but its passing was largely unnoticed and certainly not challenged by the National Union of Students (NUS). Today, with the student loan barely, or more accurately, rarely sufficient to cover accommodation in halls of residence for a single student, the mature student is unable to service existing debts, house rental or mortgage repayments, family commitments and other basic living costs on an amount that does not even reach that enjoyed by a jobseeker and without the additional support by way of housing and council tax benefits, among others.
Margaret Hodge, the Minister for HELL, made an attack on non-vocational qualifications which was contrary to everything that the Mature Students Union stands for and makes a mockery of the life long learning part of her position. Learning for learning's sake is central to the philosophy of a mature student, especially when the Government already considers mature students over 50 sufficiently unemployable to automatically grant funding by way of student loans. If this is the standpoint of the one member of the Government who should be working on behalf of mature students then the announcement of the funding review will be a black day for three million students nationwide.
Measures such as the new Education Maintenance Allowance (EMA) and the recent public attack on students as layabouts wasting the taxpayers' money on drink raise concerns that the Government is using a showcase announcement to improve its image at the student's expense. The EMA provides support for the students who might be considered to be the least needing as they are only available to the 19's and under as an incentive to stay in further and then higher education. This group is more likely to continue their education than mature students are to start again and this measure is being seen by mature students as a way of keeping numbers up in colleges so that the Government can claim to be meeting its targets without addressing the real problems.
The situation is not helped by the NUS or a large proportion of colleges and universities. The NUS is convinced that the level of "oppression" suffered by "old people" does not warrant the allocation of time and resources to support the sixty per cent of its membership that are classified as mature and prefers to concentrate on those students that will vote them back into office and further their careers. Students' Unions (SU) at colleges still perceive mature students as undeserving of their attention as they do not contribute to student life. This misconception, based mainly on the mature student's external commitments preventing them from spending a lot of time in the SU facilities, feeds the mature student's belief that the SU does not provide any service for them and perpetuates the vicious circle.
College staff are not always as aware of mature student needs as they could be. Many colleges still treat mature students almost like children and ignore the experience and maturity that they bring with them. Whereas the apparently "mature" interaction between tutor and student that exists at colleges might appeal to a sixteen year old straight out of school, to a mature student, perhaps with many years of business or military responsibility and command, this approach can be downright patronising if not insulting. This is one of the reasons that mature students shy away from airing their concerns with college administration departments. Similarly, many colleges, especially within the FE sector, appear apprehensive, if not scared, of mature students and think it might upset the "balance of power" by allowing mature students to have an input and some discourage or prevent the setting up of mature student societies and clubs.
The needs of the mature student are based on work, family and other home commitments and need sympathetic consideration. If the Government is truly committed to education for all and not just lip-service to get them re-elected then they have to address the funding requirements of students and this can only be achieved if colleges and the NUS treat mature students as students and not just business statistics.
Alan Coleman the National Communications Officer for the Mature Students' Union and a part-time forensic science student at South East Essex College. He read law at the University of East London after 17 years in the Royal Navy.
The MSU national conference will take place in Birmingham over the weekend of 22-23rd March.
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Funding Campaign- Tools, Information & Advice.
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Charles Clarke has now delivered the White Paper which will map out student and university funding in the future.
As expected it contains a lot of bad news, with debts of over £20k planned and funding cuts in other areas which will see us move closer to a two-tier system of Higher Education.
So here is a resource centre for student activists to help oppose the proposals.
White Paper Summary & what you can do
 | Left A poster template for
the national lobby. To access a word version RIGHT click here and choose 'save target as'
Right If you can get them done, here's a template of a postcard to send to MPs. Click Here to see more |  |
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Amnesty International say a letter is worth ten protesters,
so here's the easy way to get a letter to your MP. You may not believe this, but not all MPs have published email addresses.
However, you can go straight to a web based fax form just by entering your postcode. More Info and Petitions
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