Juggling priorities: A comparison of young and mature age students’ use of time during their first semester of teacher education

In recent years the profile of students enrolling in tertiary education has changed. Where the majority of students were once straight from school, single and not dependent on employment outside college, a much larger segment of the student population now comprises students of diverse ages with a variety of life experiences, dependent families and reliance on paid employment. Students no longer have the luxury of being able to dedicate their time to study relatively free of other obligations. This article reports a study designed to find out how a random sample of students allocated their time during their first semester of study. The manner in which younger and mature age students allocated their time is compared and issues associated with students' time allocation are discussed. The older students reported better time management skills than the younger students and their grades were significantly higher. The findings of this study have implications for developing and delivering programmes of study to best meet the needs of an increasingly diverse student population.