This is Jack, Trevor, Zara, Sasha, or any number of adult learners. Many come back into education because they always wanted to go to college or university, but couldn’t when it might have been available to them earlier. They were starting a family, perhaps; or they suffered illness or bereavement; they had to care for a family member or they needed to earn money; or perhaps they had an undiagnosed learning difficulty such as dyslexia. But many also come back into education because only now have they decided they want to study something in particular, or see study in general as relevant to their lives. Some had other particular interests they wished to pursue – a career in football or cricket or acting, perhaps (all of which might be educational in their own ways). Others just felt that the world of work would suit them better.

Were they wrong? Are they only now realising that they would have been better off back then trying to go to college or university? We think not. People are wonderfully diverse, and the shape of an individual life is determined by an enormous range of factors. Some people who wish to become parents want to do it quite quickly, in their late teens or early twenties; others prefer to wait a few years; some wish to wait much longer. Some people want, or get stuck with, the same job for their whole working life; others pursue a number of different careers. None of these trajectories is better than any other – there is no ideal life-shape towards which we all should strive – and each of them may be more or less of a conscious choice. And this is no less true of the timing of university study. Some people are ready at 18 years old, or perhaps 19 or 20 after spending time outside education for one or two years. And they’re ready for the full-time three- or four- or even five-year undergraduate programme. For others, that’s not the right time. They are coming out of 14 years of highly directed education.