Flexibility in enabling education: The equity/efficiency trade-off

Flexibility in Enabling education provides greater equity by making the programs more accessible to a wider range of people. This study covers a variety of accessibility options for Enabling and demonstrates that the more flexible an Enabling program is in terms of enrolment, mode of delivery and expectations with respect to completion dates the lower the outcomes in terms of completions of the program and articulations to undergraduate study. Flexibility induces a much higher enrolment that costs more in terms of Commonwealth funding but the outcomes are far lower than for more structured offerings. The very strength of flexibility can also be its weakness.