PENSIONERS are becoming a powerful force in higher education, according to a report to be discussed at a seminar next week.
It reveals that the over-60s are more likely to enter post-school education than any group except the under-25s.
The survey, commissioned by the Higher Education Funding Council for England and submitted to the Dearing inquiry, found about 33,000 people over the age of 60 were taking some form of further or higher education course leading to a qualification.
Drawing on statistics compiled by the 1995 Labour Force Survey, a quarterly survey of 60,000 households in the United Kingdom, the survey found that, all things being equal, pensioners were the most common kind of mature student.
The numbers are relatively small since young people still dominate higher education courses. While participation in higher education is 7 per cent overall, for those under 25 it leaps to 30 per cent.
But with the number of over-60s in the population increasing, the study has important funding implications for the future.
Since their working life is over, people in this age group are more interested in liberal arts than in vocational courses.
And their higher education qualification will not directly benefit the nation's economic competitiveness.
Jim Soulsby, development officer for the Older and Bolder project run by NIACE, the national organisation for adult learning, said strong anecdotal evidence implied the more older people used their brains, the healthier they were. This could mean indirect savings for the national health service.
But this was unlikely to be recognised in government spending plans run on departmental lines.
He said the number of older people in higher education varied dramatically. In only eight institutions, including Anglia Polytechnic University, Sussex University, the University of East London and the University of Durham, were more than 4 per cent of students aged over 40.
In the past, NIACE has found that older people are more likely to have left school early and therefore tend to be less interested in taking further qualifications.
But Mr Soulsby said this was beginning to change as better educated people moved into their "third age".
Combined with improvement in access, this meant more and more were entering higher education.
The most popular course among those aged over 50 was information technology.
Stephen McNair, associate director of NIACE, warned this could lead to other age groups becoming "digitally homeless".
While younger people had learned about IT and school and pensioners had enough time to take courses, the people running most organisations had relatively little IT experience.
Cliff Allan, head of teaching and learning policy at HEFCE, said it was relatively cheap to fund older people on part-time and continuing education courses, particularly as many paid towards their education.
The report, produced by the Institute of Employment Research at the University of Warwick, found non-traditional students such as the over-60s did not regret spending money on their courses.