Access by Part-Time Students: A Question of Openness in Canadian Universities

Canadian universities employ a variety of methods to increase access, especially for adult students unable to attend regular day classes because of employment or family commitments. How effective are such methods? Is the large increase in part-time enrolment during the past twenty-five years due to such policies and practices? This study examines the evening credit programs of seven middle-size to large universities. Such programs can be viewed as one specific method by which institutions attempt to implement the general organizational value of "openness. " In particular, an effort is made to trace the effect on access of two different approaches to the internal organization and administration of evening sessions at the institutions studied. Policies and practices which facilitate part-time study are also discussed. The paper is exploratory and does not attempt to offer definitive conclusions. Nonetheless, suggestions are offered for further research and for institutional practices which promote part-time study. The issue of accessibility for part-time students is expected to become of increasing concern in the light of predictions that the traditional student body — those 18-22 years old who predominantly register for full-time study in daytime courses — will decline in the 1990s. Additionally, universities will be required to accommodate large numbers of adult learners returning for further studies and training as a lifelong learn- ing or recurrent education model is developed by society. The importance of such a model continues to receive attention at both federal and provincial levels in Canada.