Leaders of four universities are urging the Government to expand the childcare grant to include postgraduate students so they are not disincentivised from studying for higher qualifications.
The vice-chancellors of the GW4 Alliance of Bath, Bristol, Cardiff and Exeter universities have written to ministers as part of their ongoing campaign to expand access to the childcare grant, which is only available to full-time undergraduate students with children under 15, to those studying for their masters and PhDs.
They argue that in most cases, postgraduate students are also ineligible for childcare entitlements if they are in full-time education and not working.
According to the GW4 Alliance, postgraduate students with children are usually offered a ‘stipend’ – a fixed sum of money paid as a salary – to cover the cost of housing and other living expenses. However, a typical ‘stipend’ for a postgraduate student is between £15,00 to £19,000 per year, while the average cost of a full-time early years place for a child under two is over £14,000 a year.
