How to Support Students with Caring Responsibilities: Insights from the ‘Who Cares?’ Project
Being a student during the current cost of living crisis is tough. The Office for National Statistics reports that students are struggling with the impact of rising prices while the values of student loans have fallen in real terms, and the NUS finds that many students are working more hours alongside their studies. All of this is taking place within a context where students might quite understandably be fearful of what the future holds for them, whether that’s climate change, economic insecurity, war or hate crime.
One group of students that can find university study particularly challenging, whether at undergraduate or postgraduate level, are students with caring responsibilities (SCRs): student parents, student carers and those who do both. But even as recent research into the work life balance and wellbeing of students with caring responsibilities has discovered, these complexities and challenges can lead to skills, identity and a sense of perspective worth celebrating.
Who are students with caring responsibilities, and why is their university experience sometimes difficult?
SCRs include students who are parents or guardians of children, and students who care for an adult family member or friend who could not manage without their help. Care is a fundamental human activity, with most people caring for an adult, child, or both on a short or long-term basis at some point in their lives. But caregiving is often associated with negative physical and mental health outcomes. Students who care for others can find it challenging to balance the demands of their studies with their responsibilities, which can cause stress and anxiety.
It has been suggested that universities don’t always understand the needs of students who don’t fit the ideal student mould or know how to support them to overcome the challenges they encounter. The numbers of SCRs in HE has only recently begun to be collected nationally with UCAS including the option for applicants to HE for 2023 entry onwards to disclose if they have parenting or caring responsibilities in their application.
We were fortunate to work together with SCRs and those who support them during their studies to understand more about the challenges they experience at university and the impact of trying to juggle study, work and life on their wellbeing and mental health, having received funding from the national research network funded by UK Research and Innovation - SMaRteN. Our project whose objectives emerged from our lived experience, explored the conflicts of identity and stresses studying whilst caring could engender which can impact on students’ engagement, experience, sense of belonging, and wellbeing. Using a cross-disciplinary, mixed-methods approach (an online survey and interviews with SCRs carried out in 2022), we aimed to develop a comprehensive understanding of the challenges facing SCRs and identify practical ways for universities to support them. Based on our findings, we have some suggestions that HE colleagues might like to consider when addressing the challenges faced by students with caring responsibilities.
Improve your knowledge of the care commitments of your students
Care commitments are not static, so offer regular opportunities for students to disclose their caring responsibilities, this might be annually at the point of enrolment. But many SCRs are still worried that staff will negatively judge them if they disclose information about their care obligations. Universities need to ensure they collect this data regularly, or at least encourage SCRs to disclose it to a nominated member of staff or team so that it is recorded. SCRs should feel encouraged to share this information, because it will help their experience, not hinder it. While it was reassuring that some students in our study had empathetic lecturers and tutors that they could talk to and who would try and accommodate their care commitments, SCRs shouldn’t have to rely on the luck of the draw.
This highlights the importance of institutional policy that students and staff are not only aware of (if it exists) but actively contribute to or create, amidst a culture of openness which we fell is crucial to supporting SCRs and their wellbeing and leads us to our next suggestion.
Work with students to co-create institutional policy
If you have a carer and/or parent policy, promote it! If you don’t, ensure that students with caring responsibilities can contribute to creating a policy that addresses their specific needs in your context and sets out your commitment to them in a single document.
Student parents and carers are often considered separate groups within higher education bureaucracy, associated support services and funding streams – but our research suggests they share related challenges.
Working with SCRs within an institution to co-create such policies not only ensures that the diverse backgrounds and needs of SCRs are considered, but also ensures visibility for this group, who often feel invisible.
Communicate the support available effectively
SCRs often lack the time to seek support information due to all the demands on their time. Promote your policy if you have one. Use direct communications and explicitly set out the range of support options available. Ensure that information is available pre-enrolment to enable students to make informed decisions about their university choice.
We found that SCRs benefit from both targeted institutional support, such as Students’ Union groups for parents and carers, for example, where they could meet students in a similar situation to them, as well as universally available services available for all students, such as financial advice, wellbeing services and the chaplaincy because they are usually quicker to access, and SCRs are time poor.
We recommend communicating with SCRs repeatedly and in different ways.
Work with relevant local and external organisations
Third sector organisations and local authorities have expertise in supporting SCRs. Joined-up working can help improve the range and continuity of support available. While student carers have been identified as an underrepresented and disadvantaged group by the OfS, we found that SCRs who had been young adult carers prior to their university studies found that the important support they received from third sector organisations and/or the local authority ceased when they turned 18 or moved to a university in another locality, which was bewildering for them. There seems to be much greater scope and requirement to work with charitable organisations that support carers, young adult carers, young parents, and lone parents, for example, to better understand how SCRs can be integrated into HE and once they are there.
Create a ‘care-full’* campus
Ensure there are family-friendly spaces on campus. The SCRs we asked felt that allowing children to attend events, SCR friendly study spaces, and car parking spaces for SCRs who might need to get home quickly for a loved one were all practical ways in which universities could help create a care-full campus.
SCRs themselves identified a range of contributions they make to HE spaces, and we call on universities to consider these attributes in a wider conversation about how welcome SCRs are in physical and virtual learning and social spaces at university.
Acknowledge and appreciate the skills and contributions of students with caring responsibilities. We found evidence of both the strengths and benefits which care responsibilities could offer SCRs in their personal and educational endeavours. They possess drive and determination in their academic pursuits, characterised by 'focus,’ ‘motivation,' 'work ethic,' and 'pride', alongside an increasing sense of self-belief. Soft skills that helped them with their studies, such as time management and multitasking, as well as a perspective and orientation to their studies derived from the knowledge of the value of their care for their loved ones, were incredibly important to them.
This could all contribute to a broader dialogue aimed at fostering SCR integration through open discussions about caring responsibilities amongst both staff and students.
*as opposed to a ‘care-less’ campus (see the work of Katherine Lynch for more about this).
About the authors
During the funded project period (October 2021 to August 2022), the authors were employed, in the following roles, and at the following institutions:
Rachel Spacey: Research Fellow, Lincoln Higher Education Research Institute/Lincoln Academy of Learning and Teaching, University of Lincoln. (Rachel is now Policy and Engagement Officer at UMHAN (University Mental Health Advisers Network)).
Rebecca Sanderson: Research Associate, Lincoln Higher Education Research Institute/Lincoln Academy of Learning and Teaching/Eleanor Glanville Institute, University of Lincoln. (Rebecca is now Lecturer, School of Education, University of Lincoln).
Amy Zile: Postgraduate Researcher, School of Health Sciences, University of East Anglia. (Amy is now Lecturer in Medical Education, Senior Adviser and Research Assistant in Optimising Wellbeing at Norwich Medical School, University of East Anglia).
