Unite Students signs the Care Leaver Covenant to help widen access and participation in higher education

• Unite Students becomes the first student accommodation provider to sign-up to the Care Leaver Covenant   
• The initiative supports young people leaving care and Unite Students is offering eligible students a guarantor waiver on their rooms  
• Through the Unite Foundation, Unite Students has supported more than 880 students since 2012 with rent-free accommodation for three years – including 70 this year
• Additionally, it’s gifting more than 60 free rooms to care experienced and estranged students for a year    

Unite Students, the UK’s largest provider of student accommodation, has signed the Care Leaver Covenant to help widen access and participation in higher education.

The government-backed initiative supports young people leaving care with education, work, well-being, money and life at home, and provides unique opportunities through support from more than 500 partner organisations. 

Unite Students becomes the first purpose-built student accommodation provider to join the network, which includes 110 universities and colleges, and has committed to offering a guarantor waiver to eligible students in a trial starting in 2026/27.  

The need for a rent guarantor can make it difficult for care leavers and estranged young people to book university accommodation, as they do not have a family member to step into that role. It means they often have to make large rental payments upfront or pay additional fees to commercial guarantor providers. 

Unite Students hopes to help solve this problem by testing a cost and risk-free guarantor solution with a group of its university partners. 

In addition, the company has announced it’s gifting more than 60 free one-year tenancies to care experienced and estranged students for the 2025-26 academic year. The rooms will go to students who applied for a Unite Foundation scholarship but were not selected during the latest cycle due to the high-level of demand for places.  

Unite Students founded the Unite Foundation in 2012, donating over £18million to date to support the charity’s scholarships, student community building, research and work advocating for care experienced and estranged students within the higher education sector.      

More than 880 students have been awarded a Unite Foundation scholarship with transformative, rent-free accommodation for up to three years. A further 70 new scholars have joined the Unite Foundation for 2025-26. 

Unite Students is also supporting IntoUniversity’s Big City Bright Future Programme this summer, offering free accommodation to interns completing work experience in London.  

The cost of travel and accommodation can be prohibitive for many participants and Unite Students is helping by hosting more than 50 interns at its Julian Markham House property in Elephant and Castle, London. 

Joe Lister, CEO at Unite Students, said: “We’ve a long-running tradition of supporting care leavers and estranged students via the Unite Foundation and joining the Care Leaver Covenant is a great way for us to help even more young people.  

“We know that the need for a guarantor can be a major stumbling block for care experienced and estranged students who want to go to university. 

“This commitment will help break down those barriers and ensure that we’re offering rooms that are inclusive and accessible to as many students as possible, creating a space from which they can grow and maximise their academic potential.”  

Matthew Gordon, chief executive at Spectra which delivers the Care Leaver Covenant for the Department for Education, said: “Securing accommodation is one of the greatest challenges facing care leavers who want to progress to university. We’re delighted that Unite Students is joining our network of leading companies across the country, which are connecting care leavers with exclusive opportunities in education, work, wellbeing, money and their home. 

“As Unite Foundation’s own research tells us, just 14% of young people from a care background go to university compared to 47% of their non care experienced peers and care leavers are 38% more likely to drop out of university than non-care-experienced peers. This commitment by Unite Students on guarantor waivers and gifting one-year tenancies is a significant contribution to removing barriers to higher education.” 

ENDS 

Notes to Editors  

For further information, please contact Unite Students press office on 0117 4506300 or email: press.office@unitestudents.com  

About Unite Students   

Unite Students is the UK’s largest owner, manager, and developer of purpose-built student accommodation (PBSA).   

With more than 145 properties in 22 leading university towns and cities, Unite Students is home to around 65,000 students, living predominantly in en-suite study bedrooms with rents covering bills, insurance, and 24-hour security.   

Driven by a common purpose: to provide a ‘Home for Success’ to live, work and invest, Unite Students is committed to raising standards in the student accommodation sector with the support of over 60 university partners.   

Founded in 1991 in Bristol, the Unite Group is an award-winning Real Estate Investment Trust (REIT), listed on the London Stock Exchange. For more information, visit Unite Group’s corporate website www.unitegroup.com or the Unite Students’ site www.unitestudents.com.  

About Care Leaver Covenant  

The Care Leaver Covenant works with more than 500 organisations across the country to connect care leavers with exclusive opportunities in education, work, wellbeing, money and their home.  

It is delivered by Spectra and funded by the Department for Education.