Accessing higher education

In these videos, student carers share their journeys into higher education. Many carers see university as not being an option for them, so outreach and widening participation activity make all the difference to them accessing higher education. Some will not achieve the grades they need because of the impact their caring role has had on school so may benefit from alternative routes into higher education, such as college or apprenticeships. Student carers are also at higher risk of dropping out once they get to university (Sempik and Becker, 2014) so can benefit from additional support to manage their caring role while studying.

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Transcript: Video 2.2  Journeys into higher education

[Journeys into Higher Education]

CHARLOTTE MUIR

I initially narrowed my search to close by unis because I didn’t believe I could move away and everything be okay at home. Especially towards the end of high school. I was doing quite a lot since my Dad was still working full-time, and then my guidance teacher was like ‘yeah, but you need to think about yourself, so where do you want to go?’

STEPHEN SMITH

And I know for me in fifth and sixth year, especially sixth year for me, I was part-time at school, so going from four or five subjects down to two, and then failing every exam that I sat, because of your caring role because you just don’t have time to study. If it’s a choice of study or look after someone you love, study goes out the window, your education goes out the window.

School offered me a seventh year to kind of come back and do exams, which was a fantastic offer. Fortunately, I’d had a different offer of an apprenticeship, but it wasn’t based on exams, it wasn’t based on anything other than someone understanding that I maybe didn’t have the best start at school because of being a young carer, and they wanted to give me a chance. That was the only reason I had an apprenticeship, otherwise I would not be studying at one of the top five art schools in the UK, it just doesn’t happen like that… Unfortunately, people don't get those chances very often.

CHARLOTTE MUIR

I dropped out of university and came home to help more hands-on and support my Dad with having to take her in and out of hospital to do visits and appointments and everything, basically. I then decided that I was going to apply again for uni, and I got in. Now that my Dad has retired, he is taking on a more full-on caring role for my Mum and I try not to, but every so often I do partake in caring and its mainly to give him a break, so yeah he’s ok…

End transcript: Video 2.2  Journeys into higher education

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Video 2.2  Journeys into higher education