It was with great excitement and trepidation that I opened the Student Academic Experience Survey report last week – this was the first time we have a national data set that gives us comparative analysis for care-experienced students. A seminal moment for those of us working in this space.
Unless you’ve been hiding under a bush you will know that care-experienced students are hugely under-represented in higher education. Just 13% of care-experienced young people go to university by the age of 19, compared to 43% of their peers.
Addressing their access to, and engagement in, higher education was a welcome key pillar of the Equality of Opportunity Risk Register – however, with such little data existing about this group of students, and even less about estranged young people who share similar characteristics, there is much to be done to firstly recognise their experiences at university, and then implement evidence led interventions that ensure we are able to not just bring more care-experienced students into higher education but ensure they go onto complete their studies.
Opening the Student Academic Experience Survey report and seeing a whole section exploring the attitudes and experiences of those who have been in Local Authority care is significant. As a group so often overlooked having robust comparative data is a great stride in the right direction. Although perhaps less so was the stark disparity for those with care experience and their reflections on their time in higher education.
