Content
A University for All Ages
18 September 2004
This week the University has been conducting an information
session for people interested in finding out how they can undertake
a university course and have their work and life experiences
evaluated to facilitate entry.
There often tends to be a mindset amongst mature aged
prospective students that if they left school early some time ago,
then they have automatically missed their chance to go to
University, and the prospect of exploring entry becomes too
daunting.
Their fears are compounded by their views that universities are
predominantly for the young school leavers, and that the latter are
so bright and up-to-date that they cannot ever compete.
Even if the brave take the plunge and enter a university course,
it invariably takes some time for their confidence to build. But
for most, build it does, especially as they begin to see that their
life experiences and their more mature interests can actually give
them advantages over school-leavers.
As long as people have not become set in their ways, are open to
discuss new ideas, and are motivated, then they can invariably
succeed.
One of the most powerful expressions of mature age success at
University was brought home to me in the 1970s when I was involved
in teaching in the newly established 'Open University' in the
United Kingdom where people without prior formal qualifications
were admitted. Success in exams and assignments were the
determiners of whether they continued at the University. I was
taken aback by how the latent pool of talent was tapped - thousands
of people who had left school early, who had been denied
traditional university entry, who had dropped out, who had new
interests they wanted to extend - became successes in University
study - some sailing to first class honours.
I know many students on the Sunshine Coast who have been in some
of these categories, have taken the step to return, and despite
their initial trepidation, have done well and even secured higher
degrees.
If people have a burning desire to explore options, or have
already developed interests they want to extend, I do hope that
they will make enquiries at this University because from next year
there will be more options available than ever before.
Higher learning is not simply the preserve of the young and
although we have admitted a qualified student as young as 13 years
of age, we have also had students in their eighties. Universities
are for all those who want to learn.
One of the great advantages of the Coast having its own
University is that it is accessible and local. Local people attend
their own University and the University grows further and returns
benefits to the community.
We have known from the earliest days of planning that there
would be both a significant school-leaver demand for higher
education, but also a pent-up or latent demand from mature students
who for various reasons had not previously accessed a
university.
Even if you missed one of the information sessions for
prospective mature students this week, there are always people here
who can help field your enquiries if you are contemplating entry
next year.
If you are motivated, learning isn't a chore or an imposition
and can be profoundly liberating - you only have to listen to some
AFUW members or bursary recipients for example to realise the
difference it can make to women, who have so often been the
dispossessed educationally.
If you're interested in further study, no matter what age, go
for it!
Professor Paul Thomas is Vice-Chancellor of University of
the Sunshine Coast