A hassle-free home at uni: scholarship for care leavers and estranged students

Hello, we’re the Unite Foundation and we offer a University Scholarship, specifically for care leavers/care experienced people (if you go to university in Scotland) or young people estranged from their family. We’ve included some definitions at the bottom of this blog to help explain what we mean!

What's on offer?
Having somewhere of your own to call home matters. With the Unite Foundation scholarship, you’ll have accommodation and bills covered for up to 3 years of study. That includes all through the holidays too, so you don’t have to wonder where to go during Christmas or summer. You can even stay the summer after you graduate to plan your next move. 
 
This year there are over 100 scholarships available. You can apply for the scholarship via our website and you’ll find an application guide in there, which also answers FAQs. This year’s application process closes on 1st June 2023, but the scholarship runs every year, so keep it in mind for future even if you’re not eligible this year. If you’re unsuccessful, you can also re-apply in future years. Any questions, drop our small but friendly team an email at [email protected]
 
How we've supported the students on our scholarship?   
 
We’re celebrating 10 years of providing these transformational awards and so far, over 600 estranged and care experienced young people across the UK have gone to university on the Unite Foundation scholarship. The Unite Foundation team will help you settle in, keep in touch, and offer opportunities for employment and enjoyment.
 
Independent research from Jisc revealed that students on our scholarships stayed on course and enjoyed significantly better completion and grade outcomes. For example, drop-out rates for scholarship students are significantly lower. Unite Foundation Scholarship students stay at university. Our students progressed from their 1st to 2nd year of programme within two academic years at the same percentage as non-care leaver students and at a statistically significantly higher percentage to the other care leavers groups examined.
 
We also support students who are estranged, or care experienced with a free national community, founded in 2022. This student-led community is for any Higher Education students from this background – they don’t need to be on the scholarship. The online social network alone has over 600 members and we continue to grow across the UK, in-person and virtually. 
 
 
Definitions
 

• Care experienced: means a person has spent time living with foster carers under local authority care, in residential care (e.g. a children’s home), looked after at home under a supervision order, or in kinship care (looked after by relatives or friends). This includes adopted people. All care experienced Higher Education students of any age can join the community. You can learn more about this through UCAS

 

• Care Leaver: is a tighter term that Student Finance in the UK (except Scotland) use. The legal definition of a care leaver comes from The Children (Leaving Care) Act 2000 which states that a Care Leaver is someone who has been in the care of the Local Authority for a period of 13 weeks or more spanning their 16th birthday. In Scotland, the term ‘care experienced’ is used instead. This means that, in Scotland, people who have wider care experience (such as adoption and kinship care) are eligible for our scholarship and care experienced student finance.

 

• Estranged: means that a person doesn’t have support from their parents (biological, step or adoptive) due to a breakdown in their relationship. There are many reasons why someone becomes estranged, which could include (but are not limited to): being homeless/at risk of homelessness, being a victim of domestic abuse by family members, having experienced/been threatened with 'honour'-based violence or forced marriage or being disowned/rejected for being LGBTQ+ or because of life choices which parents disagree with. You can learn more about this through UCAS