A Risk Worth Taking? A Study of Mature Students’ Experiences in Two Irish Universities

Abstract

Policy forecasts suggest that mature students (aged +23) will form an increasing part of a more diverse student body in Irish higher education going forward. This presents challenges for a provision that has been geared to the needs of a traditional age cohort during a period of unprecedented growth in the sector. Notwithstanding speculation and debate about equity and ‘balance’ in the system now and in the future, the question remains: Is higher education ‘fit for purpose’ given a forecast of 20% participation rates for fulltime mature new entrants to third-level by the end of the current decade, and 25% thereafter? Previous research efforts cast some doubt on this enterprise, suggesting that this is an inherently more ‘risky’ venture for mature students than it is for their younger counterparts. Specifically, this indicates that mature students intentions (and hence needs) in higher education differ from the traditional age cohort and that some older learners face multiple barriers to their participation and success at third-level. This paper discusses a critical ethnographic study looking at the intentions and first-year experiences of mature students (n=30) in two Irish universities in the period 2012-2013. Initial findings indicate a highly diverse grouping whose heterogeneity is best captured in the complexity of intentions that these students hold for their higher education experience. This illustrates how career aspirations are held alongside more personal reasons that are located deep in these students’ personal histories and biographies from which themes of emancipation, liberation, catharsis and transformation emerge.