Scotland’s Rural College, SRUC, has launched a campaign to encourage more people to return to the academic world as mature students.
The Change Your Path initiative sets out to highlight the many advantages of studying at a later stage in life, and provide “inspiration and reassurance” to potential applicants.
Told through real-life stories, it comes at a time when UK-wide the number of mature students is falling.
Financial concerns, family life and worries over the ability to absorb new information can be off-putting, according to SRUC’s marketing and student recruitment manager Hannah D’Mellow.
However, about a third of SRUC’s students are classed as mature, and horticulture and countryside-related copics are particularly popular with the older cohort, showing it is perfectly possible and extremely rewarding, she said.
Mature student numbers are holding steady at SRUC in contrast to the UK-wide picture, with UCAS figures showing overall acceptances of people aged 21 and over into higher education fell from 114,365 in 2015 to 112,070 in 2016 and then again to 110,540 in 2017.
One student who has taken the plunge is Amber O’Quinn Jardine.
She swapped a high-paid banking career for a Countryside Management HND at SRUC’s Oatridge campus in West Lothian and now plans to complete a degree to secure her dream job as an ecologist.
Originally from the US, the 41-year-old said: “The first day was the scariest. But once I’d met some lecturers and other mature students I never looked back. It’s a lot simpler and easier than people think – plus there is funding and bursaries available.
“If you don’t want to be one of those people who’s 70 wishing you’d had a different life, just do it.”
Another Change Your Path former student is Christina Smith who, having studied for a BSc (Hons) in Horticulture with Plantsmanship, joined the Scottish Government as a Plant Health Officer in 2017.
She said: “Being a mature student helped me gain an immense amount of confidence in myself, in my ability to communicate, to present my work and to do research.
“I may be 53, but the experience very much kept me young at heart. It’s never too late – you’re never too old to find your passion and embrace it.”