Care Experienced Students

Students who have had experience of being in care may need additional support while they are students with us. Any care-experienced student is entitled to support from a dedicated support coordinator within Student Services. They can offer ongoing support and impartial guidance as required and can help students access relevant support services within the University as well as liaise with academic schools.

Students who have identified themselves as care-experienced at application or matriculation will receive regular communication from the University covering support and opportunities that are available.

Fiona Whelan is the lead support coordinator within Student Services and works to match students with an appropriate named contact. If you would like to learn more and explore 1:1 support, please contact her at CareExperienced@st-andrews.ac.uk.

Finding somewhere to live while studying is particularly important if you are care experienced. In response to this, the University endeavours to support care experienced students in securing year-round accommodation for the duration of their studies should they require it. We will continue to ensure that no deposit or guarantor is required for University accommodation, and that rooms are available for 365 days of the year.

 If you think that you need accommodation over the Christmas and Summer break, please email Care.Experienced@st-andrews.ac.uk and the support coordinator will be in touch. Depending on which hall you are living in, please note that we cannot guarantee that you will stay in your same room over the summer break and you may need to move to a different room. 

As with all students, it is important that you apply for University accommodation within the stated deadline. Please ensure you read the application process guidelines before applying for accommodation; the support coordinator can assist you in this process.

For more information on accommodation offered by the University, take a look at the accommodation pages of the St Andrews website.

Should a student wish to find private accommodation, we will offer advice with finding this, including assistance with deposits if needed. The support coordinator can provide advice on this.

There are a number of types of financial support available for current students, including the University's discretionary fund, which can be accessed at any point within your studies here. You can find out more information on our Money Matters webpages.

The Money Advice team within Student Services is available to provide advice to students on financial and budgeting support. We encourage students to meet with a Money Adviser as early as possible. You can contact them at moneyadvice@st-andrews.ac.uk or the support coordinator can help facilitate a meeting.

Your local education authority (in England) or the Student Awards Agency for Scotland (SAAS) will usually pay any undergraduate tuition fees for eligible students. Scottish students will also have access to a bursary offered to care experienced young people through SAAS. If you are a UK resident, you are also likely to be eligible for a repayable student loan. To find out more information on tuition fees and student loans see the SAAS website or the gov.uk website.

Each local authority may also have a policy detailing how it can help you financially to cover the costs of your studies, for example, payments for books and accommodation. Keyworkers, social workers or aftercare teams should be able to provide you further information on what support your local authority could provide. If you have any further questions or would like some help contacting your local authority, then get in touch with our support coordinators.

Careers Support

The Career Centre supports you whether you are a student or a graduate (within three years of graduation). The Career Centre offers one-to-one appointments, events and employment opportunities that you can access on CareerConnect. 

Amy Kinsman is a Careers Adviser within the Careers Centre and is happy to respond to any career-related questions from care-experienced students on CareerConnect.

The Careers Centre Career Journey framework helps you assess career options and secure graduate-level employment or further study.

The journey has three stages: Explore, Develop and Make it Happen.

Explore

If you are in the ‘explore’ stage, you might be thinking about life after university but have not got clear ideas about what to do next.

If you are at this stage, you may like to:

become more aware of your strengths and priorities

gain insight and inspiration by taking part in the Your Future, Start Now programme

book an appointment with a Careers Adviser.

Develop

If you are in the ‘develop’ stage, you might have some ideas about your interests and what you would like to do next. You will be ready to develop your skills and knowledge of career options or grow your professional contacts.

The Careers Centre can help you develop connections, and offers a career mentoring programme called Coffee Connect. This matches you with a graduate from SaintConnect to have a relaxed, online chat over coffee to discuss careers.

There is also a work shadowing programme in which graduates, friends and staff of the University offer their time for you to shadow them at their place of work.

In addition, there is an Employability Bursary. This provides up to £500 to help University students complete work-related activity. The Careers Centre especially welcomes applications from care-experienced students.

Make it Happen

If you are in the ‘make it happen’ stage, you have a clear plan of what you want to do after university and are ready to take the next step. But you may not be sure about what you need to do to put your plan into action and could use some help.

If you are at this stage, you could think about getting ready for work, preparing for further study, and reviewing and reflecting. The Careers Centre has online resources that can help with CV writing, psychometric tests and interview preparation.