Jisc Change Agents' Network Conference 2024

This session will share the findings of a 2023 UK-wide study of students with parental responsibility, explore participants’ experiences of pastoral and academic support at university and discuss both the pockets of institutional good practice and the systemic failures in pastoral and academic support revealed by this study.

Given the evidence base provided by this research, in January 2024 the Office for Students added student-parents to the list of students at risk within their Equality of Opportunity Risk Register.  This is a huge step forward, a sit means that student-parents will now be considered in universities’ Access & Participation Planning.

Armed with data from UCAS’s new question inviting student-parents to self-identify when applying to university and the metrically-driven incentive provided by their APPs, providers will now be in a position to put in place structures and systems to support their student-parent cohort.

This session will go on to introduce delegates to the toolkits emanating from this study: the Student-Parent Guide to Navigating University (housed on the UCAS website) and the Personal Tutor Guide to Supporting Student-Parents.  

Delegates will leave the session with a clear sense of the challenges faced by student-parents and with a plan for concrete, practical changes that can be made to facilitate the access, retention, progression and success of this motivated and committed cohort.