Professor Mark Rogers:

One of the things that also needs to be looked at is our definition of a "student". We think of students very much in the rigid terms of full-time or perhaps part-time, but up until relatively recently if a student was part-time he or she did not have access to supports. If we are considering lifelong learning, however, then we really do need to reimagine what it is to be a student and all of the different categories of students. We have individuals who are coming into the university and are taking a module, not necessarily just for the pleasure of learning but as part of their attempt to come back into education. We want to be able to recognise all of that diversity of student learning. We are constrained within the definitions that are used when it comes to how our funding models work. It is critical that we reimagine what it is we think about and what it is we want from the education system. Lifelong learning is one of the big agendas. If lifelong learning is something we want to prioritise then we must recognise that this means we will have a whole different array of students coming with differing needs and profiles. We need to be able to support them all.