The University of Aberdeen was founded in 1495 to be open to all and actively encourages applications from care experienced students. As a corporate parent, the University provides care and support to help care experienced students realise their full potential in all ways.
Our Access and Articulation team can provide pre-entry support for care experienced students. This help can include things like arranging visits on campus (including in some cases funding for travel), answering questions about the application process and entry qualifications, introducing applicants and offer holders to extensive range of post-entry support services and more.
We recognise care experience under our contextualised admissions policy. This means that care experienced applicants may benefit from a contextual or reduced offer of entry onto most of the University’s undergraduate degree programmes.
We currently offer 365 days or full year contracts in its Halls of Residence to students who have experience of being in care. We can (depending on availability) sometimes offer suitable options to stay in our halls of residence beyond the 1st year of your undergraduate degree and during postgraduate studies. The University also offers advice services to help students find accommodation in the private housing market in Aberdeen if they choose to move out of halls.
We offer a range of scholarships and bursaries which may be able to help care experienced students with the costs of coming to University. Working in conjunction with the Student Association, we also offer a range of support mechanisms that can help students to find part-time work. Support is available for care experience students to apply to the University’s discretionary fund.
The Student Support & Advice team offers a range of different support mechanisms. These include, but are not limited to, the following: support with disabilities and specific learning differences, support with childcare funding, academic concerns, personal issues, issues related to a caring role, financial advice and general advice. Our support for mental health includes an on-site Counselling Service, access to online support through Big White Wall and other mechanisms and initiatives for those with specific mental health conditions or concerns. As part of our programme to improve the Health and Wellbeing of both staff and students, we engage in several different activities and initiatives all designed to help in this area.
We offer help which can assist care experienced students throughout their learner journey. From the start all students are assigned an academic as a Personal Tutor who is an initial point of contact for all queries, and help to improve academic skills and knowledge is available from the Student Learning Service. Students can be paired up with another more senior student as a mentor via the Students 4 Students programme and this mentor can help students get used to the University, its processes and systems, show them round the campus, the city and help with a range of other topics. The Career Service supports students in preparing for their next steps beyond their studies.
More information is available online or please contact:
- Professor Abbe Brown, Dean for Student Support
- Dr Sally Middleton, Head of Access and Articulation
- Mr Nicholas Edwards, Head of Student Support and Deputy Director of People
You can also find out more about our full offer on our Propel page