UEA to offer care leavers and estranged students free accommodation with new scholarship
By: Communications
Students who are estranged from their families or are leaving care will be offered a new opportunity of fully funded campus accommodation at the University of East Anglia (UEA), thanks to a partnership between the University and the Unite Foundation, announced today (Monday 19 December).
UEA has partnered with the Unite Foundation as one of four universities to take part in the ‘At Home At University’ scholarship pilot scheme, as part of the University’s ongoing commitment to widening access and participation.
The pilot scheme involves the Unite Foundation, supported by two philanthropic foundations, Astra Foundation and The Dulverton Trust, contributing towards the full cost of accommodation and bills for four care leaver and estranged student scholars for up to three years. The scholars will also receive support from UEA to ensure attainment and year-on-year progression during the duration of their degree.
Recent figures from the Office for Students revealed that access to higher education is significantly lower for young people who have been in care, with 13 per cent of pupils who were looked after continuously for 12 months or more entering higher education, compared to 43 per cent of all other groups.
Estranged students are defined as those who have no communicative relationships with their parents or wider family network. This can be for a number of different reasons, including abuse, forced marriage to family rejection because of belonging to the LGBTQ+ community. A recent survey from Stand Alone showed that 14 per cent of estranged students had suspended or deferred their studies and 27 per cent had considered doing so, with financial stress cited as the main reason for this.
The scholarships will start taking applications in January with students applying for the first year undergraduate courses from the next academic year, 2023/24. Two thirds of the funding is provided by Unite, Astra Foundation and Duvlerton Trust, with UEA making up the other third.
UEA already offers a bursary of £2,500 a year for up to four years for eligible care leavers or estranged students, but this is the first fully funded accommodation scholarship of its kind at the University.
Liz Ferguson, UEA Widening Participation Officer, said: “UEA has always had the ethos of university being available to everyone, no matter your background, rooted into its fabric, so these scholarships are great news for us – and represent what we stand for.
“Care leavers and estranged students are not always the first groups that people think of as being underrepresented in higher education but many of them face so many barriers in their path here – whether financial or lacking the pastoral support that having a family network can provide.
“This pilot will help to remove that financial barrier, and provide further support for the scholars throughout their time here. We’re grateful to the Unite Foundation and their donors for their funding commitment and very much looking forward to working with them over the coming years.”
Fiona Ellison, Director of the Unite Foundation, said: “Our partnership with UEA will ensure that we are able to support students studying in the East of England, where we don’t currently have any presence. We were impressed by UEA’s interdepartmental approach to creating a holistic package of support for students at every stage. We hope that this approach, coupled with the support of accommodation scholarships, will help to further drive up progression and completion rates for care leavers and estranged students.”
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