Mature students

Mature students are those who start their undergraduate degree over the age of 21 years old. They can face particular barriers which we are motivated to remove.

Who are mature students?

Mature students are defined as those who are 21 years or older on the day they start their undergraduate degree. They may have been away from education for some time with work, family commitments or for personal reasons or are seeking a change of direction, a new career, or a new interest. Perhaps they ‘missed’ out on higher earlier on in their education journey but now feel ready to take their studies further.

There is no ‘typical’ mature student, and their backgrounds and experiences are incredibly diverse. Mature students can face a different journey to their peers and come via a slightly different route than non-mature students. UCL has mature students studying across all faculties in a variety of undergraduate programmes at the University.

Group descriptors and barriers

In 2019/20, mature students made up 24% of the UK-domiciled undergraduate intake. They are more likely to be commuter students, disabled, from access backgrounds and have caring responsibilities as well as financial responsibilities and be from black and minority ethnic groups.

Mature students have also reported challenges with:

• Identity and belonging
• Feeling isolated and disengaged from support
• Lack of study confidence
• Barriers to social and cultural capital
• Financial barriers
• Difficulties in accessing academic and wellbeing support.

Analysis of UCL data shows there is a non-significant attainment gap for mature students and a small but significant continuation gap for mature students compared to their younger peers.

As a result, UCL has committed to:

• Reduce mature and young student non-continuation rate by five percentage points by 2024-25
• Eliminate the non-continuation gap between young and mature students by 2030-31

Student Success Interventions

To support the Mature Students group in building networks and feeling confident in accessing UCL’s services, we run

• Events and socials throughout the academic year.
• A dedicated mailing list in which mature students are provided with updates from the Student Success team, reminders of support available, opportunities from our team and around UCL as well as invites to events and social activities too.
• Pre-arrival communication
• Welcome to UCL event for mature students
• A named key contact in the Student Success team to help students navigate their student experience.
• Working relationship with Students Union UCL, to collaborate and promote networks for mature students.