§ Mrs. Renée Shortasked the Secretary of State for Education and Science how many mature students are attending British universities, either part-time or full-tame; and how many of these have no formal qualifications.
§ Mr. WaldegraveDefining mature students as those aged 21 or over when they enter their first course of higher education, there were 11,884 full-time and 2,133 part-time undergraduate mature entrants to the universities of Great Britain in 1981–82. Virtually all postgraduate students at universities have already undertaken a first degree course. It is not possible to distinguish those who were mature on entry to their postgraduate course, although most of these students are likely to be aged 21 or over.
Information is not readily available of the number of students who have no formal qualifications, but it thought to be small. Each student will have satisfied his university's criteria for entrance.