Joe Lister on care experienced and estranged students

Joe Lister, Unite Students’ Chief Executive, highlights why we commissioned a new report by the Social Market Foundation on urgent support for care experienced and estranged students.

Chief executive Joe Lister

The welfare and success of our residents is vital to what we do and why we do it. With the cost of living at the forefront of our minds and many stresses on young people today, nothing is more important than providing fair opportunity for all where possible. My youngest daughter is in her first year at university and has our family support, both financially and in other areas of her life, but that is not the case for a significant number of students.

Care experienced and estranged students often do not have any family backing and have to do the hard part on their own. Not only can that affect their studies, but it is stopping many potential students from applying to university altogether. That cannot continue to be the case. We have, therefore, signed up to the Care Leaver Covenant, a voluntary pledge to provide support and opportunities for young people across finance, health, education, employment and independent living.

The recent Independent Review of Children’s Social Care identified five missions to ensure care experienced people can feel secure: loving relationships; quality education; a decent home; fulfilling work and good health. At 19-years-old, only 14% of care experienced young people are in university, compared with 47% of the wider population. The dropout rate for those care experienced students that do go is unacceptably high – 38% compared with 6% of their peers.

That is why we commissioned the Social Market Foundation to research and develop a report around what can be done to improve this situation. The SMF has published the ‘Care and Learning in Higher Education’ report with nine key recommendations for Government and other stakeholders to turn this around. These include financial as well as other types of support, including career guidance and tutoring.

Our decision to commission this research sits within our wider commitment to diversity, equity, inclusion, belonging and wellbeing, which includes our Living Black at University, Meeting the Needs of Neurodivergent Students and Unite Students Applicant Index reports.

We’re very proud of our work with the Unite Foundation, the charity we established in 2012, which we have partnered with for this report. Its colleagues and supporters work hard every day to give a voice to and support those who need it and it is the only UK charity to support both estranged and care-experienced students. We remain the charity’s principal corporate donor and accommodation partner and have donated over £16m towards its work, which has supported over 800 students.

We commissioned this report to address the urgent need to identify more actionable ways that support estranged and care experienced students to go to university, progress in higher education and achieve success. This fits within our drive to create a Home for Success, to support residents and provide accommodation that is safe and secure, high quality and affordable.

Taking the report’s findings and encouraging change is our next step and we would welcome any help from those who want care experienced and estranged students to get to and make the most of their time at university.