31.   Evidence also shows that mature students in general do better than younger students in all areas of study except those relating to Engineering subjects.

32.   This short monograph reviews and summarises both current and past research on mature students in Higher Education.

33.   The main sections cover theoretical studies, comprehensive surveys, mature students in institutions of higher education, and mature students as a group within the wider student body.

34.   The concluding section emphasises that there is little published research on mature students in higher education in Scotland.

35.   The little information that is given on the performance of mature students is not very useful.

36.   Unqualified mature students in British universities.

37.   The overall performance of unqualified mature students was poor.

38.   These results suggest that unqualified mature students do not perform as well in their final examinations as qualified mature students or for that matter standard entry students.

39.   For mature students the relationship was particularly weak.

40.   The lower entrance qualifications held by mature students did not always lead to poorer degree results.