The Secret to Mature Student Success: What Providers Must Get Right

Mature learners have long been treated as a single, uniform category within further and higher education. In reality, they are one of the most varied groups in the system – spanning working parents, career changers, first-generation learners, entrepreneurs and individuals returning to education after many years. Their experiences, responsibilities and motivations differ widely, but they share a consistent aim: to improve their lives through education.

Supporting their success requires education institutions to rethink traditional models. Across the sector, it is increasingly clear that mature students succeed best when learning is designed around real life rather than expecting life to fit around education.

Here are the core principles institutions should consider.

1. Flexibility must be treated as an essential part of quality

For mature learners, flexibility is not a convenience – it is often the determining factor in whether they can access education at all.

Although offering evening and weekend classes is important, more is required:

• multiple entry points across the year
• timetabling shaped around work patterns and caring responsibilities
• fixed lesson slots for the entirety of a course, enabling students to plan around existing commitments
• clear, accessible academic pathways

When flexibility is built into programme design, mature learners are better able to plan ahead and sustain progress rather than choosing between their education and their responsibilities. A system that recognises this strengthens continuation and achievement.

2. Personalised support acknowledging the diversity of mature students

Mature learners come from wide-ranging professional, cultural and personal backgrounds. Some re-enter study after a long break; others are progressing within their sectors, managing childcare, running businesses or re-skilling for new roles.

As a result, personalised support – whether academic, pastoral or practical – plays a critical role in enabling success.

Research from Advance HE and the Office for Students highlights that mature learners particularly value being treated as individuals and having their personal circumstances understood, with these factors consistently linked to confidence, continuation and overall satisfaction.

3. A sense of belonging matters – especially for those returning to education

Adult learners, due to their different circumstances when compared to more traditional students who have just graduated high school, are less interested in the peripheral activities that come with gaining a degree, and arguably more focussed on their learning and outcomes, due to their time constraints as they juggle their studies with work and family commitments.

With this said, a sense of belonging is equally important. Consistent learning groups, accessible on-campus support, and inclusive classroom practices all help create continuity. Community-based delivery, including engagement with local organisations and community agents, can further strengthen belonging by grounding learning in the lived realities of the neighbourhoods from which learners come.

Belonging is not a soft concept. It is one of the most reliable predictors of engagement, retention and success, particularly for adults balancing study with complex personal responsibilities.

4. Growth in mature participation reflects wider economic and social trends

Across the sector, more adults are entering or returning to education as labour-market demands shift and skills requirements change.

This reflects wider national pressures. The UK faces skills shortages in areas such as health, care, construction, digital and business services – fields where mature learners already play a substantial role. Demand for reskilling and upskilling is expected to continue as industries evolve and economic conditions remain uncertain.

Peer recommendation and informal networks also play an important role in adult participation. Mature learners share what works for them; word-of-mouth remains one of the strongest indicators that a model is genuinely supporting people’s lives.

5. Mature learners need pathways genuinely designed for adults

Rather than adapting programmes built for school leavers, institutions need to design learning pathways that speak directly to how adults learn, progress and make decisions. This means:

• curricula that build on existing work experience
• assessment focused on real-world application
• teaching that acknowledges gaps in academic confidence
• course structures aligned to local labour-market opportunities

When pathways are designed with adults at the centre, participation becomes more sustainable and outcomes more resilient. This is not about differentiation; it is about reflecting the realities of today’s learners.

A sector-wide shift is needed

Supporting mature learners is not about lowering standards or easing expectations. It is about removing unnecessary barriers, recognising lived realities, and ensuring higher education meaningfully contributes to social mobility, skills development and local economic resilience.

The UK will rely heavily on adult learners to meet future workforce needs, driven by skills shortages as the UK attempts to accelerate house building and tackle NHS waiting lists.

Student success depends on whether learning institutions are prepared to evolve towards flexible delivery, personalised support and community-connected models that genuinely reflect modern life.

When mature learners thrive, families, communities and local economies thrive with them. The challenge for the sector is to ensure that the pathways we create are not only open, but truly accessible for the people who need them most.

By James Kennedy, Executive Director at Global Banking School