"The people who make decisions about admissions are not prepared to take on the challenges of teaching mature students, students from disadvantaged backgrounds, students with disabilities, students from minority groups"
Many academics lack commitment and some are even hostile to the promotion of campus equality.
This, argues Eamon Tuffy, chairperson of the Higher Education Equality Unit, threatens the achievement of many of the equality targets on the higher education agenda.
Speaking at the recent launch of the Equality Unit's new resource centre in UCC, Tuffy noted that the backing of the Minister for Education and Science and the Government for real improvements in the level of access to higher education by students from disadvantaged backgrounds and under-represented groups, including mature students, has been demonstrated by several recent financially underpinning initiatives.
"The HEA is actively supporting equality projects in the universities through its targeted funding policy," he said.
"At institutional level university heads are making encouraging noises about their determination to follow the path to increased equality set out in the 1997 universities legislation. But the success or failure of the equality project will ultimately be determined by the response of individual academics at faculty and department level." Until now, school-leavers have been the main target for higher education recruitment, but the threat of skills shortages resulting from falling numbers of school-leavers strengthens the arguments to increase the number of mature students in college.
"But there is alarming evidence that despite public and institutional policies the very people who make the decisions about admissions to courses are not prepared to take on board the challenges of teaching mature students, students from disadvantaged backgrounds, students with disabilities and students from minority ethnic groups." Tuffy highlights the need to increase lecturer awareness and expertise in teaching students from diverse backgrounds.
Third-level presidents, directors and senior managers must allocate funds to staff development, training in the theory and practice of adult learning, in-course support for students admitted through routes other than the points system and more diverse and flexible modes of course delivery, he says.
