Advising care leavers

We are dedicated to supporting care leavers and have been awarded the ‘Committed to Care Leavers’ Quality Mark by Frank Buttle Trust for our commitment to young people in and leaving care.

Outreach events and activities

We offer targeted outreach activities in partnership with the University of the West of England, Bath Spa University and the University of Bristol, to raise care leavers’ aspirations and achievements to help them continue into Higher Education.

We also run bespoke events that include:

• a tour of our campus
• a Q & A with one of our Student Ambassadors who might have a similar background
• a session about getting support and financial help.

Applications and admissions

We are happy to provide care leavers with advice and support about admissions processes, including the UCAS application and personal statement. Please encourage your students to email careleavers@bath.ac.uk for individual support, or feel free to get in contact yourself.

We encourage applicants to state their care leaver status in the additional information section on the UCAS application form. This information will be used to monitor their application process and to offer support if they choose Bath as their firm choice.

If a care leaver has experienced disruption to their studies, we would encourage their referee to note this in the reference that they provide on the UCAS form, so that we are able to take account of this when processing the application.

If the information is too detailed to provide on the UCAS application, you can email this to careleavers@bath.ac.uk. Please include the applicants programme choice, UCAS number and full name.

Funding and financial guidance

For many care leavers, funding their university experience is a significant concern. Care leavers entering higher education before the ages of 25 are currently entitled to a one-off bursary of a minimum of £2,000 from their local authority - you may be able to assist them with finding out more about this.

Care leavers are a priority group for our funding packages which can offer eligible students:

• fee waivers worth up to £3,000 per academic year
• bursaries worth up to £3,000 per academic year
• scholarships worth up to £5,000 per academic year.

Visit our funding pages for full details and eligibility criteria.

In addition, we also offer students who meet the definition of "care leaver" (see below) and are under the age of 25, a bursary of £1,000 each academic year, on top of any other fee waivers, bursaries and scholarships they receive.

In order to access this funding, student will need to provide evidence of their care leaver status from a social worker or Leaving Care Personal Adviser.

The Student Funding Advice team provides advice regarding other funds available to care leavers.

Support for care leavers at the University of Bath

We can support care leavers in many different ways:

• we can offer all year round accommodation on campus
• we can help to develop their study skills
• Student Services can provide advice about funding, disability support and health and wellbeing.

To find out more about the help and support that is available to care leavers studying here, please contact Mark Skinner in Students Services - email Student Services or phone 01225 385538.