In England, part-time students have to pay their fees up-front, they can't take out a government-supported loan, and their chances of securing any financial support are depressingly slim. While all full-time students are entitled to some state support, Parliamentary questions have revealed that nine out of 10 part-time students receive nothing at all. The crisis in full-time undergraduate student places seen in recent weeks has placed the Government in a vulnerable position. On the one hand, it has dangled the promise of a university education in front of a generation of young people, while, on the other, a series of "black-holes" in the university budget has quashed any hopes of expanding the system to fit them. Predictably, the media has focused on disappointed 18 year-olds with a clutch of good grades and nowhere to go, but the crisis has raised some important questions about older learners. The Government frequently trumpets the importance of lifelong learning. Alan Milburn and Lord Mandelson have talked eloquently about driving social mobility. But, the author argues, the Government's unfair treatment of part-time students makes such rhetoric seem hollow.