Students miss out on bursary scheme
● Hundreds ineligible for cash to help those who grew up in care Hard study required after care
Hundreds of students are missing out on Nicola Sturgeon’s flagship scheme to get more people who have been in care into university and college.
The First Minister has said she wants to make helping people who grow up in care a defining mission of the Scottish Government. A key part of her plan has been a bursary scheme introduced by the Scottish Government to grant “care experienced” students £8,100 per year.
However, the First Minister is now under pressure from politicians and charities to extend the system because so many students are ineligible for the scheme. Under the rules of the bursary, which was announced at the SNP conference, students from a care background can apply up to the age of 26.
But a large proportion do not make it to university until after that age, because of the difficulties they face in their early life.
The most recent data says that last year 679 of the 3,053 care-experienced students at college were over the age of 25, while 128 of the 334 at university were over 25.
Former Scottish Labour leader Kezia Dugdale said the bursaries were welcome but said more had to be done.
She said: “Many care-leavers who go to university do so later in life because of the traumatic experiences they’ve had during their childhood. They tend to be mature students, so are missing out on this bursary because of the little-publicised age limit set by the government. I urge ministers to consider making financial support available for careexperienced students aged 26 and over.”
She was supported by Duncan Dunlop, chief executive of Who Cares Scotland? the charity which supports people who have been in care.
Mr Dunlop said: “Care-experienced people are like everyone else – they have potential, dreams and the ability to achieve them. Unfortunately our members who are over the age of 26 are being left to do it all on their own.
“We know that many careexperienced people, for example, go onto further and higher education later than others. In some occasions this is because care left them before they were ready and before they were set on the kind of positive path that other young people get the chance to.
“Returning to education can be a huge step, especially when people have no financial, practical or emotional support. Our members want to see that the state is on their side and will help them reach their potential, no matter what age they are – just like other parents do.”
A Scottish Government spokeswoman said: “We are determined to widen access to university and, by the end of this parliament, we will increase funding for student support by over £20 million per year. This includes an investment this year of more than £5m to increase the bursary for every care-experienced young person at college or university to £8,100 – equivalent to the Living Wage.
“Careful consideration was given to the eligibility for the bursary based on a range of evidence and discussions with stakeholders.”
The spokeswoman added: “The age limit aligns with current legislation to provide ‘continuing care’ to care leavers up to the age of 26 – a provision that received cross-party support in the Scottish Parliament.”
0 Carmel Jacob has just finished a masters degree in educational psychology at Dundee University Carmel Jacob,30, grew up in the care of her grandmother after her mother died when she was just three.
She has just finished a masters degree in educational psychology at Dundee University. Her studies were financed by her own hard work, and she believes the bursary scheme should be extended.
“I went through university without having access to these bursaries and I have done it,” she said. “It has required me to be on placements and working the whole time – literally running myself into the ground. University is supposed to be an experience where you enjoy the process of it. For me it was very much a box I needed to tick to be where I wanted career-wise.
“This is a population of people who don’t have the luxury of going home and staying with their parents while they are studying. If they are surviving, it is because they are working full time and that can’t stop for them to access education.
“The door to education should always be kept open for everyone. It is a very low percentage of kids that grow up in care that go directly from school to university. That can be due to loads of different reasons. There is a lack of support for someone that doesn’t have that family network when they are in university.”