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Drawing on a research project which investigated the recent decline in mature student recruitment to higher education in the UK, this article explores the decision‐making process among samples of potential and new mature entrants to nine case study higher education institutions. It compares the emphasis in public policy on higher education as a private investment with the understandings and interpretations of individuals in the act of applying for entry. It concludes that while at a generalised level mature learners believe that the private return on investment will be high, at a personal level the concepts of fragility and risk are more pertinent to understanding the complexity of their decision‐making process, particularly for those over 25 years of age.
Davies et al. (Sun,) studied this question.