- Student
The University of Surrey’s definition of a care leaver includes any student who is care experienced. Care may have been provided in one of many different settings, such as:
-with foster carers under local authority care
-in a residential children’s home
-being ‘looked after at home’ under a supervision order
– living with friends or relatives in kinship care
This broader definition will allow us to support a wider range of students.
Outreach activity
The University of Surrey’s outreach team (WPO) runs the secondary school programme. Through this the team works with under-represented students in years 5 – 11 from local primary and secondary schools through a sustained progressive programme of education information and guidance and subject-specific activities.
Care experienced young people are guaranteed places on the following schemes:
- The Year 10 ‘Realise your Potential’ Programme is the University’s sustained engagement programme for Year 10 students.
- Year 11 GCSE Revision Masterclasses.
- A year 12 residential summer school programme which offers students the chance to experience studying a subject at university.
- A year 12 virtual summer school programme which offers students the chance to experience studying a subject at university.
- Discover University residential summer school which prioritises places for care experienced young people in years 9, 10 and 11.
- Surrey Scholars – WPO’s award-winning initiative of hybrid extracurricular outreach, consisting of on campus and online activity for learners in Year 9 – 13 with priority access to activity (including the activity detailed above) and exclusive invitations to events. Care experienced young people are guaranteed a place as a Surrey Scholar.
- Surrey Stars, is an attainment programme for local schools with wide disadvantage gaps at GCSE. The programme includes targeted interventions for students who are eligible for free school meals, care experienced, have a disability or long term health condition or are from a Traveller community. The programme embeds targeted and whole school activity within the curriculum and provide exclusive campus visits for participating school and eligible learners.
The University of Surrey’s outreach team has a presence at the University’s open days offering information advice and guidance and we are looking to expand this support.
The University of Surrey’s outreach team offer financial support for travel to open days, applicant days and interviews and outreach activity. We also cover audition costs for the Guildford School of Acting.
Transition
From 2022 entry the University has implemented a university-wide contextualised admissions scheme. This prioritises care experienced students. Students receive a reduction in entry requirements – from September 2024 entry this will be equivalent to two A-level grades and one Btech grade lower. They also have:
- A dedicated staff member to reach out to offer holders.
- Access to an E-Mentor (a current undergraduate student).
- Invitations to exclusive events that will support transition to and through university for care experienced students.
Current Support Available
- We proactively reach out to care experienced students at the beginning of the academic year to offer them 1:1 support
- Care experienced students receive a welcome pack during Welcome Week.
- We offer a £3000 bursary with a £500 Moving On payment on graduation to all students who are Care Leavers.
- For Care Experienced students who may not meet the legal criteria of ‘Care Leaver’ for the above bursary, there are two scholarships available to apply for: The Forever Surrey Scholarship and The Battersea Scholarship. These two scholarships provide the recipient £3,000 per year for a maximum of four years and are for Home/UK student, from a care experienced background.
- The University of Surrey has a dedicated point of contact for students who identify as care experienced on entry. The role aims to provide welfare advice and can signpost students to other services.
- The University of Surrey prioritises care leavers for accommodation and offers year-round accommodation for care experienced students, for a full 365 days, for every year of study.
- Care Experienced students can access our Guarantor Scheme if renting privately, and the University will cover all associated administration costs
- The University of Surrey offers global engagement study awards for Widening Participation students, including care experienced students, to fund participation in summer programmes abroad.
- Specific information for care experienced students can be found on the student communities page surrey.ac.uk/student-support/student-communities.
- Care experienced students have access to the Team Surrey Sports and Activity Access fund of up to £250, which supports them in accessing the Surrey Sports Park.
- Care experienced students can also apply for the Access to Learning fund to help pay for books, IT equipment or anything else that might be required to aid a student’s learning – this is a grant of up to £250.
- As part of a Widening Participation group, care experienced students can access the University’s long term Laptop Loan Scheme.
- The Student Success Team offers proactive support and guidance for students who are at risk of withdrawal and provide these students with long term pastoral support. Although the team supports all students and manages a range of complex student cases, they also have an added focus on supporting widening participation students and can provide care experienced students with one-to-one pastoral support in the form of regular appointments and provide information, advice and guidance throughout their time at university. We also offer a bespoke goals-setting resource for care experienced studentswhen they meet with the Student Success Team.
- MySurrey Engagement (MSE) – this online platform enables students to be proactive about their learning, by showing them detailed engagement information about their interaction with the various online learning resources Surrey has to offer, as well as their attendance. The Student Success Team and Personal Tutors use MSE to proactively reach out to students who may be at risk of not progressing due to lack of engagement – this can be particularly beneficial to care experienced students who may be at a higher risk of lack of progression/completion than other students
The University of Surrey is committed to continuously learning from other institutions and listening to the voice of students. We are committed to improving practice and provision for care leavers. In light of this:
- The University of Surrey is a member of NNECL and attends regional South East meetings held by NNECL. The University is committed to continually learning from best practice. We are also keen to sign up the NNECL quality mark.
- We are committed to listening to the voices of students through our Care Experienced Students’ Network and providing the opportunity for these students to feed back to the University about their experience, as well as a space to support each other and to socialise.
We are working to improve:
- We are looking into adding care experienced student as a category in the PTY bursary
- WPO will continue to update their dedicated webpage for care experienced young people and their social workers, supporters or foster carers, which offers information, advice and guidance
- A Robust Employment Offer
The University of Surrey is working closely with the Careers and Employability service to work on developing an enhanced career offer for care experienced students. This includes:
- A dedicated point of contact for care experienced students in the careers service.
- Encouraging care experienced students to undertake the University of Surrey Employability Award
- Developing partnerships with organisations who provide routes into internships for care experienced students.
- Community
We have a strong working relationship with Surrey Virtual School for Looked After Children. We have been working with them to develop a programme of bespoke and targeted activity for the care experienced young people they work with and their foster families, and will be running a number of events this year.
