Posted 25 November 2024

The theme for this year’s Estranged Students’ Solidarity Week is Invisible No More. Running between 25 November and 1 December, it aims to highlight the often invisible struggles of individuals who are studying without the support of a family network. 

Go Higher West Yorkshire (GHWY) has sought to raise awareness of some of these struggles, such as poor mental health and increased risk of homelessness, through our work to support estranged students. This includes through our collaborative Estranged Student Pledge (formerly Stand Alone Pledge), which collates some of the support our 13 members offer to this group of individuals in one easy to navigate document.

Launched in 2021 and updated annually, our e-resource recognises the difficulty in navigating the websites of multiple Higher Education (HE) providers to locate support information. This includes whether the provider offers 365-day accommodation, whether financial support is available, and whether it has contextual admissions (when factors such as an applicant’s family background are considered when making admissions decision). 

By offering support information in one place, along with helpful tips and and a glossary of HE terms, our resource aims to remove one barrier for students to access and succeed in HE. This is important because, as a result of the increased challenges faced by estranged students, their continuation rate in 2017-18 was 8.2% lower than their non-estranged peers. Furthermore, according to data from UCAS, the attainment rate of estranged students in 2018-19 was 13% lower than students who were not estranged.  

These stark figures highlight the need for ongoing support and understanding for estranged students. Fortunately, there is a growing awareness of the invisible challenges that many individuals face when they do not have family support. There is also an increased commitment to sustained support as a result of the closure of national estrangement charity Stand Alone in April 2024. 

At the charity’s Pass the Baton celebration event, many organisations made a Legacy Pledge to continue the charity’s work to improve outcomes for estranged students. These included EaCES (Estranged and Care Experienced Students), which has taken over the running of Estranged Students’ Solidarity Week; NNECL (National Network for the Eduation of Care Leavers), which now houses many of Stand Alone’s resources and NEON (National Education Opportunities Network), which has fomed a working group to focus upon estranged students. 

Our Legacy Pledge, meanwhile, included a commitment to continue our collaborative Estranged Student Pledge and to maintain our e-learning to help HE staff support care-experienced and estranged students. This free training helps to raise awareness of some of the challenges and barriers that estranged individuals can face in HE, and offers practical tips about how staff can address them. 

We will promote both resources through a social media campaign during Estranged Students’ Solidarity Week. By helping to raise awareness of some of the invisible challenges that estranged students may face, and the support that is already in place, we hope to make individuals feel seen so that they are better equipped to succeed in HE. 

 

Susan Darlington, GHWY Partnership Assistant