The Unite Foundation

We partner with and are the principal corporate donor to the wholly independent Unite Foundation, a charity which we set up over a decade ago to provide accommodation scholarships to young people without family support.

Their nationwide scholarship scheme supports estranged and care experienced students with the provision of a rent-free home at university.

We’re doing what’s right as the principal donor and accommodation partner for the Unite Foundation; an independent charity that runs a nationwide scholarship scheme, supporting estranged and care experienced students with the provision of a rent-free home at university.

Since its inception in 2012, we’ve donated over £18.5 million to the charity to help provide a safe and secure home at university for scholarship students, 365 days a year for up to 3 years.

This includes the holidays, so students don’t have to wonder where to go during Christmas or summer. They can even stay the summer after they graduate to plan their next move. Students on the scholarship have shared that having a secure home at university means that they can focus on their university experience and that having their own space within our properties gave them ‘a base at university to come home, study and feel safe’. This was backed up by independent research, published in 2022, that shows ‘strong evidence that the Unite Foundation scholarship improves care leaver students’ educational outcomes, specifically in year-to-year progression, completion and degree outcome’.

The charity currently works with over 20 scholarship partner universities across England and Scotland and together we’re supporting estranged and care experienced students to succeed in higher education. From 2025, the charity is promoting a Blueprint for a #HomeAtUniversity so every university has a meaningful framework for safe and stable accommodation of care experienced and estranged students.