Free student accommodation is aimed at ‘levelling playing field’
YOUNG PEOPLE who have been estranged from their family or are leaving care are being urged to apply for a scholarship that provides free student accommodation in a bid to encourage more to attend university and “level the playing field”.
A total of 28 universities, including Huddersfield, Leeds Beckett, Sheffield and Sheffield Hallam, will be awarding the Unite Foundation scholarship, which provides a rent-free home for students for three years.
Applicants must be under 25 years old, a care-leaver or estranged from their family and have a place at a participating university starting this September.
However, with the closing date just over a week away, young people who are eligible are being urged to act now for a chance to win one of the 70 scholarships on offer for the 2017/18 academic year.
Offering the scholarship for the first time, Priscilla Preston, director of student services at Leeds Beckett University, said: “We are delighted to have become a Unite Foundation partner university. A Unite Foundation scholarship will undoubtedly help those students who lack family support and who, we know, face some very considerable challenges. We are very much looking forward to working with the growing network of universities involved to level the playing field”.
Helen Arber, manager of the Unite Foundation, added: “Too few young people estranged from their families or leaving care realise their full potential at university. We want to change that. A Unite Foundation Scholarship means a rent-free university home for three years of degree studies. It also brings other benefits, such as work placements and activities that support successful study and future careers.”
The accommodation will be within a Unite Students building. Since 2012, the foundation has supported 179 university students with scholarships, and with the inclusion of an additional 18 partner universities for the coming academic year, the number is set to grow substantially.