ages and cohorts

  On Monday evening I went to an interesting meeting on older women and politics, at my old stomping ground Birkbeck (never miss an opportunity to promote it).  The event was convened by  two political scientists, Joni Lovenduski and Rosie Campbell.  They showed some evidence on  older women's political attitudes, voting patterns and other issues, eg on retirement age.   Older women (already retired) are apparently more opposed to the raising of the State Pension Age than their younger counterparts.  Rosie interpreted this as a sign of altruism (i.e. these older women didn't want the next generation to have to work longer);  I thought it could be looked at differently, that…
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The shrinking (part-time) student

"Part-time students, particularly mature undergraduates, seem to be an invisible and, in national policy terms, poorly understood cohort. "  This is Professor Sir Eric Thomas, introducing a recent UUK report on part-time HE.  The report makes grim reading, for the most part.  Over the past decade or so, whilst full-time undergraduates  have grown considerably (11%), the numbers of part-timers have shrunk, by about 17%. Much of my professional life has been spent promoting lifelong learning in one form or another, and especially part-time learning within universities, so this makes painful reading.  My last full-time job in the UK was with the country's oldest provider of such opportunities, Birkbeck, and I'm…
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ages and cohorts

  On Monday evening I went to an interesting meeting on older women and politics, at my old stomping ground Birkbeck (never miss an opportunity to promote it).  The event was convened by  two political scientists, Joni Lovenduski and Rosie Campbell.  They showed some evidence on  older women's political attitudes, voting patterns and other issues, eg on retirement age.   Older women (already retired) are apparently more opposed to the raising of the State Pension Age than their younger counterparts.  Rosie interpreted this as a sign of altruism (i.e. these older women didn't want the next generation to have to work longer);  I thought it could be looked at differently, that…
Read More

The shrinking (part-time) student

"Part-time students, particularly mature undergraduates, seem to be an invisible and, in national policy terms, poorly understood cohort. "  This is Professor Sir Eric Thomas, introducing a recent UUK report on part-time HE.  The report makes grim reading, for the most part.  Over the past decade or so, whilst full-time undergraduates  have grown considerably (11%), the numbers of part-timers have shrunk, by about 17%. Much of my professional life has been spent promoting lifelong learning in one form or another, and especially part-time learning within universities, so this makes painful reading.  My last full-time job in the UK was with the country's oldest provider of such opportunities, Birkbeck, and I'm…
Read More