The Bill Ellis Centre for Mature and Part-Time Students at 314 Unicentre opens into a large room, with a few people seated in the battered chairs which line the walls.

It is in the office to the left of the entrance that Leila Navabzadeh, 26, operates in her role as administrative co-ordinator for the centre.
 
The office is busy, and people interrupt the interview four times looking to speak with Navabzadeh, who tells them to come back later.

The centre is named after Bill Ellis, a former student who graduated with his master’s degree at the age of 91, and is funded by the Carleton University Students’ Association (CUSA).

Navabzadeh is a mature student herself, currently in the fourth-year of her psychology degree.

Mature student enrolment is difficult to define for the administration at Carleton.

“It is difficult to capture this number — admission with the mature student regulation does not capture all the students who have decided to enter studies several years after high school,” Carleton’s Director of Admissions Janice O’Farrell said in an email.

According to O’Farrell, many mature students begin studies in the special student program and are admitted to degree programs according to special student regulations.

Individuals can qualify as mature students at Carleton if they don’t meet the traditional admission requirements and have not attended school for two years, O’Farrell said.

According to student demographics information from Carleton’s Office of Institutional Research and Planning, 7.2 per cent of female undergraduates are aged 22-55.

For men, that number is 8.9 per cent.

How other schools compare

At other universities, mature student enrolment has been increasing.

At York University, enrolment of mature students is rising, according to Norma Sue Fisher-Stitt, associate vice-president of Academic Learning Initiatives.

Fisher-Stitt works at the Atkinson Centre at York, which oversees students who are not entering directly after graduating from secondary school.

Enrolment at the Atkinson Centre for students 25 and over is at 9,011, up from 8,683 last year and 8,173 in 2008, according to Fisher-Stitt.

This number includes students who transfer from a college program.

Direct entry undergraduates 25 and over make up 19 per cent of total enrolment at York University, according to Fisher-Stitt. She and associate director Brian Poser have tried to educate the other faculties at York University of the significance of this number.

“We tell them how many [mature students] are studying at York,” Fisher-Stitt said.  “Usually, they are surprised.”

Gervan Fearon is dean of the G. Raymond Chang School at Ryerson University, which specializes in offering courses and certificates for a range of different needs, including those of mature students.

Enrolment is at about 70,000, measured by the number of individual courses taken, according to Fearon.  

According the enrolment numbers at the Chang School, enrolment has increased from 64,000 in 2007 to 70,000 this year, including students from other schools taking classes at the Chang School.

Why Now?

There are many different reasons why people are returning to school at a later age, Navabzadeh said, including starting a family.

“Some of them had different careers which failed over time,” she said. “Some of them have had hard lives.”

Others come in because they now have the opportunity to learn what they could not before, according to Navabzadeh.

“We have someone who comes in who already has a PhD,” Navabzadeh said, adding that this person had been very successful in his previous career.

“He came back because he wanted to do what he wanted to do. He did originally what simply earned the money,” she said.

“He just wants to do a PhD in psychology.”

Challenges for the mature

A real problem for mature students can be self-confidence, Fisher-Stitt said.  

According to Fisher-Stitt, mature students seem to feel that they are behind those who come to university right after high school.

“When mature students are coming to campus, they have a lot of experience behind them and they don’t really acknowledge that,” Fisher-Stitt said.

This is part of a problem with making mature students feel that they belong — a problem faced by students at Carleton.

“I guess one of the biggest things for them is that events on campus are not accessible to mature students,” Navabzadeh said.

“[The events] are generally directed towards the younger students, and so it’s harder to socialize,” Navabzadeh said.

Finding the proper direction for their studies is also a problem, said Fearon.

“Someone who may have been out of university for quite a while may have a bit of difficulty saying ‘Should I do this program or that program?’”

“There’s that challenge of self-assessment,” Fearon said.

The Future

At the Atkinson Centre, Fisher-Stitt said she has noticed new trends in the amount of full-time versus part-time students over 25.

The ratio is increasing and becoming more uneven, with more students choosing to study full-time.

In 2007, 45 per cent of students over 25 were part-time, with the remaining studying full-time.

But Carleton’s Bill Ellis Centre is welcoming students regardless of trends and statistics.

“I’m happy to get more students in,” Navabzadeh said. “We have about 20-30 regular people, and another 30-50 who come in whenever they can.”

“There are people who come here regularly whom you come to love and care for.”