The effects of family support and gender on mature student engagement in higher education

While the factors driving the engagement of female mature students in the higher education sector (HE) have been extensively studied, e.g., Carney-Compton and Tan (2013) little work, if any, has been carried out examining the factors that drive engagement of their male counterparts. In light of the recent calls by various government-based think-tanks to expand the mature student population within HE, there is an obvious and urgent need to address this gap in our understanding (Bekhradnia, 2007; Sastry and Bekhradnia, 2007). Here the experiences of mature students at university, and the unique impact gender may have in influencing their initial motivation to enter HE, the responsibilities they bear, and the support they enjoy, are examined. While gender may underpin significantly diverse experiences of men and women at university, such diversity may have implications for the sector and the subsequent redesign of effective pedagogy. Within the UK the Widening Participation agenda actively promotes the increased engagement of “nontraditional” learners in HE, and as such there has been a sharp increase in the participation of older students, with these mature learners embarking on higher level learning from a wide range of backgrounds and bringing with them a breadth of experiences (Thomas, 2001). However the rapid growth associated with the mature student population has brought with it a clarion call to ensure that HE provision is appropriately redesigned to ensure that these unique students engage fully with their learning experience at university. Such reflection is imperative as engagement as a mature student can have a transformative impact on the lives of not just the student but their families as well (Wainwright and Marandet, 2010). To this end, a significant amount of research has explored the impact of family on the mature student experience, however as alluded to above, such research focusses primarily on the experiences of mature female students, extensively and ostensibly documenting the barriers that women face in accessing and progressing through their studies (Edwards, 1993; Reay et al., 2002; McGivney, 2003). The pervasive emphasis of understanding the factors that drive the engagement of female students is perhaps quite unfortunate, especially in light of the fact that familial motivations are now seen as the primary facilitator for education engagements in male pupils across the diversity of racial and cultural boundaries (Kenny and Donaldson, 1991; Gloria et al., 2005). By and large such work has been primarily embedded within the secondary education sector and as these pupils transition into HE students, it is likely that the significance of such extrinsic motivations will remain. Yet surprisingly little is known of the effects of familial motivations on male mature student populations. While key sociological research in this area has identified the need for familial support when encountering a change in social identity that the mature student inevitably goes through as they progress through their respective programmes of study (Baxter and Britton, 2001), such work is predominantly focussed on the experiences of female mature students and as such research is needed to fully explicate the experience and the impact, if any, of family on the male student experience. The motivation displayed by older learners to engage with a university programme of study has been the focus of a number of studies which have identified the vocational drivers for many mature students, as well as exploring the sense of unfulfilled potential often borne by those who opted to return to education (Britton and Baxter, 1999). While intrinsic motivation appears to be key in both the decisionmaking and subsequent success of older learners (Murphy and Roopchand, 2003; McCune et al., 2010), the decision to return to learning is often generated by key life transitions, whether situational events such as unemployment or divorce, or dispositional aspects of personal satisfaction; all key influencers on family wellbeing. Here, individuals enter HE as a mechanism to redress the balance in an unsatisfactory life, both individually and for their families (Dawson and Boulton, 2000). Motivation may be gendered; male students are labor-market focussed, with an aspiration to better provide materially for their family, while female students may seek personal improvement to offer inspirational role models for their children (Marks et al., 2003). Recent studies have further explored the power that education has as a tool for social mobility and inter-generational learning, with mature learners expressing a desire to promote higher aspirations in their own children by embarking on a programme of study themselves (Wainwright and Marandet, 2010).