Degree of convenience: Why wait until the autumn to start at university?

Oxbridge interviews are renowned for off-the-wall questions challenging the obvious, so here's one from a student: "Why do all your undergraduate degree courses start in October?"

Now the student might not have gone to the right crammer for Oxbridge entrance, but the query raises a serious point and one likely to raise a lot of huffing and puffing about long-standing traditions, the Ucas applications process, funding and accommodation from the other side of the table.

It's a question that many of the new universities have been asking and answering in recent years as the profile of the higher education student has widened to embrace the mature or non-traditional applicant who does not always fit the mould of October to June semesters.

In the frantic weeks of exam results, the joy, the tears and the scrabble for late university places in August and September, the fact that there are thousands of places on hundreds of courses up and down the country starting in January or February tends to be overlooked.

But it takes only a quick internet search to find a full-time, three-year BSc in computing science beginning at Thames Valley next February, a biology BSc at Derby in January or a law degree at the London Metropolitan in February. And there's still time to join Laura White, the X Factor finalist, who is studying for the creative writing degree at the University of Bolton, one of the many that have autumn and new year start dates.

"Universities are looking to make higher education more convenient for students and responding to other demands in their lives, such as funding and family commitments," says Pam Tatlow, the chief executive of Million+, which represents the new universities.

New year start dates suit overseas students who struggle to secure visas in the summer rush but most of those on the flexible programmes are home students who find the calendar year more convenient. Some decide to go to university too late for summer admission; some are unhappy with their chosen institution and transfer after a term. Others make further study their new year's resolution and want to get started.

"If I'd had to wait a year I think I would have gone off the idea," says Tracy Fenton, 40, who has just graduated with a 2:1 in fine arts from the University of Bolton. "My daughter was starting secondary school in September so I wanted to be home for her and it also meant I could work part time up until Christmas." She began the course in January, once her daughter was settled.

She has gone on to achieve a graduate teaching qualification and this month is hosting her first exhibition, "For what we are about to receive", which reflects her youth as an abused child in and out of 48 children and foster homes. "I have always been creative but I never saw myself as an artist until I went to Bolton University," she says

Problems arranging loans for a university course delayed Jadean Antoine, 23, from Hayes, west London and she was facing a year's wait until she discovered the BA in airline and airport management at Thames Valley University, which has a February start.

"I think I would have changed my mind about going to university by the next year and got a full-time job instead. I'm glad that didn't happen as I'm really enjoying the course at the moment and it makes no difference that our class started later than some of the other students.

"Sometimes they'll put the September and February start classes together and they might know a few things we haven't been taught yet, but it's never a problem as we will all learn the same course content," she says.

The University of Derby was one of the first to introduce second semester starts and has more than 100 undergraduate programmes starting in January, the most popular being joint honours degrees. Of the 16,000 higher education students at the university, 1,200 began courses in January.

The January students do the same spring modules as the October students, catching up with the one they missed in the final months of the course and completing their studies in December. "Because it is a smaller intake we are very careful about the induction for students and make sure they do not feel in any way marginalised," says June Hughes, Derby's director of student support.

Whatever their reason for a later starts, the second semester students share one big advantage – they apply direct to the universities and don't have to complete a Ucas form.