From widening participation to facilitating access to learning: responding to the rise of the ‘commuter student’

The Covid pandemic will have long-term effects for Higher Education (HE) in the UK. The consequences of lost access to primary and secondary education for our current and future students, alongside the exacerbation and solidification of existing cultural, economic, health and social inequalities (British Academy, 2021), will shape our provision for years to come.

One such repercussion is an increasing number of commuter students: ‘students who continue to live at home whilst studying, rather than moving into student accommodation’ (Kenyon, 2023). Pre-pandemic, initiatives to widen participation in HE increased the number of commuter students, across the UK HE sector (Donnelly and Gamsu, 2018; HESA, 2022; Maguire and Morris, 2018: 14). Post-pandemic, economic and social pressures are likely to hasten this trend. However, our learning, teaching and assessment (LTA) methods, systems and processes continue to be shaped around the needs of traditional, residential students.

There is increasing evidence that the enduring structure of Higher Education, based upon the assumption that our students relocate to attend university, excludes those who need to travel to access their teaching, learning and assessment. At the aggregate level, studies suggest that commuter students have a poorer student experience (Neves and Hillman, 2019). This is in large part because it is harder to engage in university life (Jacoby, 2015). Commuter students report lower engagement in learning activities, extra-curricular activities and social activities (Thomas and Jones, 2017; Thomas, 2019) and experience exclusion from their learning community, feeling less belonging (Pokorny, 2015; Stalmirska and Mellon, 2022). Consequently, commuter students have poorer outcomes than residential students (Maguire and Morris, 2018; Neves and Hillman, 2018; OfS, 2019; OfS, 2021). Commuter students who attend universities where the majority of students also commute are even more disadvantaged (Whyte, 2019).

This paper reports findings from in-depth research at a UK HEI to a) understand the commuter student profile, b) understand the needs of commuter students and c) develop LTA strategies and interventions to support these students.