“A Student is a Student is a Student”: a Position Paper on

In the process of providing a report to the ASG on Phase 1 of the aims of the Terms of Reference (Appendix 1), the Part-Time/ Flexible Subgroup held six meetings since late 2018 to discuss key issues, attempting to tease out many of the multiplicities of understanding that 2 2 . [...] 1.2 Vision for the Future: Set of Principles On the basis of this process, and in light of the policy and demographic context (further detailed in Sections 3-5), the Subgroup now wishes to propose the following set of principles. [...] The need for the increase provision of higher education on a part-time/ flexible basis, to a wide range of students, is likewise included in a number of recent European policy documents, notably the New Skills Agenda for Europe15 (2016) and the Agenda for the Modernisation of European Higher Education Systems16 (2011). [...] The current distinctions between full and part-time students are old world constructs which are outside the realities of national and European policy and outside of the need of HEIs and the students themselves. [...] In the process of providing a report to the ASG on Phase 1 of the aims of the Terms of Reference (Appendix 1), the Part-Time/ Flexible Subgroup held six meetings since late 2018 to discuss key issues, and teased out many of the multiplicities of understanding that exist around the subject of part-time/ flexible provision.