Carers provide unpaid care or support to a friend or family member who due to illness, disability, a mental health problem or an addiction cannot cope without their support (Carers Trust, 2022).  Across Europe, 10%-30% of the population provide informal care, a number which is projected to grow (Zigante, 2018).  With the growing emphasis placed on widening participation and equality of access to education, attention to the needs of students with caring responsibilities is intensifying.  In the United Kingdom, it is still the case that there are no official statistics on the numbers of higher education students with caring responsibilities (Office for Students, 2020), the National Union of Students (2013) estimate that in the United Kingdom carers make up between three and six per cent of the student population.

There is a growing body of research identifying the difficulties student carers have in managing their commitments to study and caring (Knopf et al., 2022, Runacres et al., 2021).  The challenges of combining caring responsibilities with study can adversely affect the social, financial and academic dimensions of university life (Larkin and Kubiak, 2021).  The time poverty, fatigue and lack of flexibility typically associated with caring can cause lateness, absence and missed deadlines, for example (Sempik and Becker, 2014, González-Arnal and Kilkey, 2009).  Interactions with other students are often comprised (National Union of Students, 2013) and carers in higher education can experience challenges to their mental and physical health (Runacres et al., 2021).  Attrition rates for caring-experienced students can be four times higher than for other students (Kettell, 2020). 

Despite greater awareness and prioritisation of this group in higher education, widening participation strategies in the United Kingdom’s higher education sector remain somewhat nascent (Office for Students, 2020).  Furthermore, there is a dearth of knowledge about carers’ needs and how best to support them (Larkin and Kubiak, 2021, Runacres et al., 2021, Knopf et al., 2022).  What does exist tends to focus on young adult carers and students in face-to-face institutions.  

In this paper, the challenges and support needs of carers in higher education distance learning are framed by the Longitudinal Model of Student Integration (Tinto, 1994).  This framework presents the likelihood of student drop out in terms of the fit between the student and the institution in three domains: study goals, academic activities and social engagements.  This paper reports on the following project aims:

1. To conduct an in-depth exploration of student carers’ experiences and views of good support for their study.
2. To build an understanding of the strategies used by student-carers to manage study while caring.

The project is a two year qualitative study carried out at The Open University, a United Kingdom Higher Education institution offering distance learning. 62 student-carers identified by a marker on their student record studying were drawn from across the university and from a range of study programmes. 30-60 minute semi-structured interviews were carried out and recorded. These interviews were transcribed. The data was analysed using an approach based on Thematic analysis (Braun and Clarke, 2006).

The results suggest that student-carers share the challenges of carers in other settings – financial limitations, time poverty and challenging, exhausting and unpredictable demands. Some participants reported losing or changing their career trajectory as their role demanded more of their time. In terms of study goals, career development or change was a focus for several. Others studied in a care-related area, hoping to become more skilled as carers or capitalising on their experience to move into a related profession in health and social care. For some, studying substituted for leisure or social activities – ‘me-time,’ an opportunity for self-rejuvenation or, a guilty break from the demands of caring. Others used care to transcend the day-to-day of their caring role. In terms of academic integration, distance learning was chosen for its flexibility. However, caring often conflicted with the time demands and routines of successful study. Carers adopted a range of strategies to actively manage their time, boundaries and social circumstances. In relation to social integration, student-carers predominantly adopted one of two distinct study strategies: solo and connected. Solo studiers met their academic and caring commitments by eschewing potentially supportive faculty and peer engagements as well as any institutional accommodations of their circumstances. In addition to the need to contain study requirements so as to attend to care demands (and potential future crises), impression management also appears to be a key factor in adopting this strategy. In contrast, connected studiers were sustained by peer and faculty support and capitalized on institutional flexibility around study deadlines and other requirements. The paper will make recommendations for institutional support for carers.

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