Care leavers/estranged students bursary

The award 

Eligibility 2024/2025

This award offers a non-repayable bursary of £1000 per year to undergraduate and postgraduate taught students who have left the care of their local authority or are irreconcilably estranged from their families and meet the relevant eligibility criteria. In addition to the annual bursary, recipients receive an award of £500 upon graduation.

This bursary will be awarded in addition to any other financial support or awards that students are entitled to from the University or your Local Authority.

Eligibility

This award is available for all undergraduate and postgraduate taught students who:

• Commence/commenced their undergraduate or postgraduate taught master’s degree at Keele in or after September 2018
• Are classed as a ‘home’ student for fee status purposes. 
• Are under the age of 25 at the start of their course at Keele*

AND

• Have spent at least 13 weeks in care (e.g. foster care or children’s home) since the age of 14 and were in care on their 16th birthday

OR

• Were privately fostered until the age of 16 or were 'looked after' until they were subject to a Special Guardianship Order.

OR

• Have been assessed as independent by Student Finance England or other local authority, because they are estranged from their parents or guardian. Postgraduate students must provide evidence from a professional person who can confirm their estrangement.

*Please note, if you commence your course aged 24, you will remain eligible to receive the Care Leaver & Estranged Students' Bursary for the length of your course unless your circumstances change.

If your course starts in September, the 'start of your course' will be considered 1st September to ensure fairness across academic years. This bursary is for students who will be based at Keele University and start their studies in September 2025 or January 2026. The award cannot be used for any other year of entry. 

Students studying on a part time basis or a professional postgraduate course are eligible for a pro-rata award. 

Exceptions

• This scholarship is not available for students studying fully online courses delivered by Keele. 
• Students will not be eligible if they are on an apprenticeship
• In order to be eligible at postgraduate level you must be studying a minimum of a Master's qualification; modular courses and the Postgraduate Certificate/Postgraduate Diploma are not eligible.
• Please note that if you are studying a Harper & Keele Veterinary School programme you will not be eligible for this award. This is due to the fact that the Veterinary School has a standalone package. Further information can be found on the Harper & Keele Veterinary School webpage.

Further information and how to apply

In order to access the bursary students will need to provide evidence that they meet the eligibility criteria.

For care leavers this may be from a key worker or social worker from the local authority or other professional person who can confirm their care leaver status.

Estranged students will need to provide evidence from a professional person that they are irreconcilably estranged from their parent or guardian and evidence that they have been assessed as independent from Student Finance.

Estranged students will need to provide evidence that they meet the eligibility criteria at the beginning of each year of study in order to receive the bursary.

Estranged students will need to meet with the dedicated contact each year they are eligible for the bursary to confirm that they continue to meet the eligibility criteria. Further evidence may be requested if required.

Evidence can be emailed to the dedicated contact in Student Services at the following address: student.services@keele.ac.uk

Qualifying recipients of the bursary will receive the award in the form of a cash bursary. 

Please note that this award can be combined with the Keele Alumni Discount and the Keele Graduate Scholarship (if eligible) however the 20% Alumni Discount will be applied after the other awards listed above have been applied.

Further terms and conditions apply, please see our Terms and Conditions for full details.  

Other funding and support opportunities

For more information about support available for care leavers and estranged students at Keele please visit our Student Support pages.