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Mature Female Entrants to Higher Education: Closing the Gender Gap in the UK Labour Market
Author(s) -
Adnett Nick,
Coates Gwen
Publication year - 2000
Publication title -
higher education quarterly
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.976
H-Index - 42
eISSN - 1468-2273
pISSN - 0951-5224
DOI - 10.1111/1468-2273.00154
Subject(s) - graduation (instrument) , closing (real estate) , subsidy , higher education , labour economics , work (physics) , economics , competition (biology) , inequality , empirical evidence , demographic economics , economic growth , market economy , finance , engineering , mechanical engineering , mathematical analysis , philosophy , mathematics , epistemology , ecology , biology
Little is known about the social and private economic returns to graduation for mature students in the UK. However, the post‐Dearing changes in the funding of higher education have initially been associated with a significant fall in applications from this group of entrants. This paper, by providing an economic assessment of mature female entrants to higher education, allows a preliminary evaluation of these changes. It critically appraises the limited empirical work in this area, identifying methodological weaknesses. Theassessment addresses the issue of re‐entry into employment and relates maturefemales' entry into higher education to the wider issue of gender inequality inthe labour market. It concludes that a case can be made for additional subsidies targeted at this group of entrants.