Care-experienced students need reliable relationships, not only bursaries

Updated Sep 07, 2026

Financial and practical support can matter alongside relationships that students experience as dependable. Ceryn Evans explores these relationships through the accounts of care-experienced students and graduates.

What the research covers

Sixteen participants connected with higher education in England and Wales were interviewed in 2023; 13 joined a follow-up in 2024. This paper draws mainly on the first wave. Thematic analysis examined care, empathy and the consequences of absent or inadequate support.

Participants valued practical provision but often described insufficient emotional support from formal university services. Friends, partners and former foster carers could provide dependable relationships. Some also described caring university staff. Individual accounts connected isolation or loss of support with interruption or withdrawal from study.

The small qualitative sample is not representative of all care-experienced students. It identifies important experiences and informs an ethical argument for relational support; it does not measure how much a specific service reduces dropout.

Questions for support teams

As editorial suggestions, ask students whether they know whom to contact and whether support feels reliable across transitions and staff changes. Give staff the time and authority needed for agreed follow-up, and check the student’s experience after a referral.

Keep financial, practical and relational needs in view together. Avoid using comments to predict an individual’s withdrawal without an appropriately evaluated method. Students should be able to describe difficulties without being reduced to a risk category.

Reference

Ceryn Evans. “The ethics of love and care in higher education: Perspectives of students with care experience.” Higher Education. DOI: 10.1007/s10734-025-01563-4.

Reviewed 7 September 2026 against the full paper. The revision states the sample and limits, removes an unverified quotation and historical participation figures, and narrows claims about retention effects.