ABSTRACT
Among lifelong learners in higher education, non-traditional students form a key group along with participants in continuing higher education programmes (Schuetze and Slowey 2000, 2002). After a long period of marginalization (as described in Wolter 2000) the issue of access for non-traditional students has become a more prominent topic in German higher education policy during the last decade. Since the 1970s, access policy has primarily focused on formal admission procedures for the regular route to higher education, in particular for those who finish the grammar school track (Gymnasium) with the usual university entry qualification, the German Abitur. For more than four decades the main access issue has been the almost continuous growth of student demand that has caused the predominant restrictive limitation policy (Numerus clausus). The proportion of new entrants increased more than fivefold between 1960 and 1990 from around 6 to 30 per cent with a subsequent rise to more than 45 per cent by 2010 – without parallel growth in the number of study places. This discrepancy has resulted in considerable capacity bottlenecks in many institutions or courses. Against this backdrop, political or institutional interest in opening up access for non-traditional students was rather slack for a long time.
