1. Engler, Ágnes – Szilágyi, Györgyi – Tőzsér, Zoltán
The expansion of higher education with special attention to part-time students in Bihar-Bihor learning region,
Engler, Ágnes – Szilágyi, Györgyi – Tőzsér, Zoltán

2. Our research is focusing on the expansion of higher education concentrating on the part-time students.

3. The reasons for the choice of theme:
limited number of those pieces of research which are focusing not on the full-time students but on the non-traditional students
these studies mainly emphasize economic and career aspects of participation
limited number of comparative studies about non-tradicional students features

4. Making comparisons:
between Hungarian and Romanian higher education policy
the general sociological features of full- and part-time students

5. Research Areas
In the micro level:
study motivations,
results of studies,
connections between students,
the labour market value of their degrees,
thinking about the lifelong learning .
In the macro level:
after the political turning,
in the light of expansion of
higher education
the social background,
the numbers of the students,
the results of studies.

6. Hypotheses I.
In the process of expansion which also concerns the non-traditional students we would find primarily economic reasons, but we assume there could be others factors which motivate student toward pursuing HE studies
We assume that in the case of the part time students (in comparison with the full time or traditional students) the main factors which determines their choise of studying in this form of education are the age and marital status . We also believe that another relevant factor is their status of employment, as part - time students are significantly more likely to be employed during the studies or to possess some work experience.

7. Hypotheses II.
We assume that those HE education students who study on a part-time basis three kinds of barriers: 1.) institutional, 2.) situational, 3.) dispositional (Cross 1981, McGivney 1993).
We assume that the participation of part-time HE students are influenced not only by social motivation and deterrent factors, but psychological factors as well.
We assume that the majority of part-time students are pursuing HE studies mainly for labour market reasons, that is to say, they want to keep their job, want to be promoted etc. Whereas, reasons like self-development, personal fulfilment, become happier person, meet new people, community involvement, studying for its own sake etc. play less role in their decision to participate compared to labour marker reasons.

8. Theories of participation
Needs of hierarchy (Maslow, 1954, Miller, 1967)
Congruence theory (Boshier 1973)
Force-field theory/social-class theory (Rubenson 1977, Miller 1967, Cross 1981)
Life-transition theory (Banks et al 1992, Sheehy 1976)
Reference group theory (McGivney 1993, Gooderham 1987)
Chain-of-response model (Cross 1981)

9. Barriers to participation
situational barriers: those arising from one's situation at a given time.
institutional barriers: those practices and procedures that exclude or discourage adults form participating in activities.
dispositional barriers: those related to attitudes and self-perceptions about oneself as a learner (Cross 1981)

10. Thank you for you kind attention! Questions and comments are welcomed!