Baroness Bakewell is urging the government to back efforts to stem the dramatic drop in part-time students.
Loans to cover tuition fees would also be pegged for full and part-time students, said the government.
The number of British part-time students in the UK fell 3% between 2007 and 2008, to 762, 340.
The number of part-time students enrolled at UK universities fell across the board last year, figures show.
Many part-time students have in the past had their tuition fees or part of them paid by their employer.
Most part-time students are classed as "mature" with responsibilities including mortgages and children.
Maryland has also started a program to link current part-time students with incoming students employed by the same company.
WSJ: Part-Time M.B.A. Programs Lend Students a Hand in Hard Times
In response to the dramatic downturn in part-time students nationwide, unprecedented support is needed now to ensure part-time study thrives in future.
Wales saw the biggest fall in part-time students from the UK (down 9%).
The coalition also pledges a review of support for part-time students, who now make up a large chunk of undergraduates.
"By that time we were part-time students and full-time entrepreneurs, " says Healy.
James Hildreth, one of seven part-time students who attend the Academy along with 12 full-timers, is impressed at what the Academy has to offer.
The change was most marked for part-time students starting the first year of postgraduate courses, where some 14% fewer students enrolled in 2011-12 than the year before.
The government says the number of part-time students has been falling since a peak in 2008-09 and it is taking steps to help part-time students fund their courses.
The government says England's "world-class university sector" has responded well to its reforms, but that it will continue to monitor their effect on demand from mature and part-time students.
The president of Birkbeck, University of London, says higher fees and a failure to communicate new rights to government loans for part-time students has led to a 40% drop in England.
That month, another restriction will kick in for part-time students: First-time borrowers pursuing a bachelor's degree won't be able to sign up for the subsidized loans for more than six years.
He also pointed out that the law would not apply to part-time students and that while teachers could be prosecuted, similar penalties would not apply to non-teaching staff in the school.
But it faces a challenging and uncertain future, largely, Lady Bakewell says, because of the government's introduction of higher tuition fees and the failure to communicate the new loan system effectively to prospective part-time students.
Falls in part-time students have also been seen in Scotland and to a lesser extent in Wales, while numbers in Northern Ireland have stayed broadly the same, according to earlier figures from the Higher Education Statistics Agency.
The participants for this study were ninety-seven evening part-time MBA students from a large Midwestern urban university.
The Labour Market Survey is a more reliable indicator of what's going on in the economy, including full-time students who want part-time work.
Part-time and older students are particularly unenthusiastic.
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There are now 70, 000 fewer people going to college than two years ago, although the government has insisted that it has "maintained college numbers at the full time equivalent of 116, 000" through focusing on full-time students and cutting thousands of part-time places.
Harvard, for instance, has 17 full-time staff and 24 part-time counsellors to help 900 students find glamorous jobs.
First, full-time workers in the 18-23 age group generally earn several times more than full-time students in that age group, who work part-time or during vacations.
He added that the fall in part-time study and in mature students taking degrees was of "real concern for individuals, organisations and our society and economy".
Part-time study is key for students not entering higher education through a more traditional route and will be vital to the success of the widening participation agenda.
Meanwhile, Saint Louis University's part-time program launched a micro-scholarship program last year: Students can apply to have the cost of one course remitted by the school so they can stay enrolled.
WSJ: Part-Time M.B.A. Programs Lend Students a Hand in Hard Times
More importantly, she may also tweak rigid labour laws, though only cautiously, to help students get part-time jobs.
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