Student carers can experience significant inequalities at every stage of their education journey, impacting their grades, future opportunities, and social connections with peers.  Their choices at university can be limited by their caring responsibilities. They also miss out on opportunities in their careers and personal lives. These inequalities can put student carers at a greater risk of poor mental and physical health, social isolation, financial hardship and poverty.

Juggling education and caring responsibilities can impact their attendance and reduce the amount of time they can dedicate to learning, impacting their grades and performance. For some student carers, the unpredictable nature of being a carer can make it hard to plan their work, revise for exams and to meet deadlines.

Despite the challenges, student carers often demonstrate exceptional resilience, empathy, time-management, and problem-solving skills – qualities that enrich our University community and will serve them well in their future careers.

Universities have a crucial role to play in identifying young people and adults with caring responsibilities.  We need to recognise the impact caring can have on their studies, as well as their personal lives. We can then take action to ensure carers get the support and guidance they need to allow them to fulfil their aspirations and potential.

As staff we can play a part in reducing inequalities by raising awareness and supporting this group of students. If you are aware of any students with caring responsibilities who may benefit from further support, please direct them to Student Wellbeing’s Student Wellbeing referral form .

You can also:

• Bear in mind that student carers may have less support to lean on. Listen to them and consider how we can enable them to achieve their studies despite their additional responsibilities outside of University.
• Ask if they are aware of support via Student Wellbeing and whether they would consider this. Alternatively external support can be accessed via VASL and the Loughborough Wellbeing Centre.
• If you’d like to speak to someone about any queries you might have regarding a student with caring responsibilities, you can contact studentwellbeing@lboro.ac.uk.