Markets and motivation in part-time postgraduate education

Recent policy in higher education in many countries has had a number of elements which are broadly economic. Current British policies emphasise the relationship of higher education to the economy, reflecting human capital theory, and competition between institutions, reflecting notions of the 'market˚s. The 1997 UK Government White Paper on higher education introduced an explicit price mechanism-tuition fees payable by students-into the full-time undergraduate system. The article reports the results of a small-scale study of the views of enquirers interested in, and enrolled students on, similar part-time master's courses in three proximate institutions about their motives for studying and the impact of price and other factors on their choice of course. Part-time postgraduate provision is one area in which empirical evidence is available about the operation of price factors, since there is considerable variation in course fees. Since (ironically), national data do not capture details of part-time fee levels, studies have to be locally-based. The study suggests that whilst human capital theory explains their behaviour in the market, students are motivated mainly by non-pecuniary considerations, and that monetary benefits and price are not as critical factors as policy-makers appear to think.