Care Leavers' Bursary

The Care Leaver’s Bursary provides financial aid to students identified as a young person who has been in care of the local authority and/or Health & Social Care Trust for at least 13 weeks since the age of 14. A student is defined as a young person if they are under 21 at the start of their course. Care Leavers who have subsequently been adopted, or are the subject of a Special Guardianship Order, will not automatically be eligible.

The Care Leavers’ Bursary is not means-tested and therefore once a student has been awarded the Care Leavers’ Bursary, they do not need to re-apply in future years.

To apply for this bursary, students should complete the application form and liaise with Student Advice and Support.

The bursary cannot be backdated for a previous year of study, so students need to have applied before the last day of the academic year to receive funding for that academic year. More information can be found on our students with care experience page.

In addition to the Care Leavers’ Bursary, care leavers are usually considered as independent students for the purpose of student finance and are often therefore eligible for the highest levels of financial support. Further information about undergraduate student funding can be found on the Student Advice and Support Service webpages.

Students entering higher education before the age of 25 may also be eligible for a one-off bursary of at least £2,000 from their local authority so they should explore this directly. There are further details about this on the Become charity website.