Financial support for care experienced students

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Financial support for care experienced students

What financial support is available for care experienced students in higher education?

We understand that managing finances and navigating the student experience independently as a care experienced student can be complicated. Remember, LEAPS are here to help. You can call or email our named contact for care experienced students, Sarah Macpherson, if you have any questions or concerns. You can reach Sarah at leaps@ed.ac.uk or by phone (see details on our contact us page).

SAAS

If you plan to begin an HNC, HND or university course, you should apply to the Student Awards Agency for Scotland (SAAS) to help fund your studies. It is recommended that you complete an application to SAAS between April and the end of June in the year you plan to begin your studies. 

You can find more information about what funding is available to care experienced students via SAAS here, which includes (at the time of writing);

  • A funding package of tuition fees
  • The SAAS Care Experienced Students Bursary (CESB)
  • A special student support loan

You do not have to pay the above SAAS funds back.

You can find information on the SAAS website about SAAS funding available to care experienced students here, including what is available, who can apply, how to apply and more. We are happy to help if you have any queries. 

Keep an eye on the SAAS website for the most up-to-date funding information and funding guides.

Scholarships and Bursaries

You may also be eligible for extra funding in the form of bursaries or scholarships. These are financial awards that do not have to be paid back, and are available from lots of different organisations including universities and educational trusts.

As well as more general scholarships and bursaries which you might be eligible to apply for (find out more about these in our Student Finance blog post), universities and colleges sometimes offer financial support specifically to care experienced students. LEAPS have compiled this blog post containing links to where you can find details of the named contact for care experienced students at Scotland's universities and some local colleges. These named contacts can support you to explore any financial support available to you at their institution. We’d always recommend that you get in touch with the named contact for care experienced students at the college or university you are interested in if you have any queries about the support they offer to care experienced students. 

Student Accommodation

If you do go to university, you may choose to continue living where you are, and to commute to and from the campus, or you may choose to move into new accommodation, whatever feels right for you!

If you are thinking of moving away from home into new accommodation one of the main things to consider is how you will fund this. This could be purpose built student accommodation, a student flat or another type of tenancy.  Again, it’s a good idea to check out if the universities you are applying to offer any support, as often they will have a policy in place for helping care experienced students with accommodation. For example, some universities partner with the Unite Foundation to offer the Unite Foundation Scholarship, which gives free year-round accommodation to care experienced and estranged students. Find out more about the Unite Foundation Scholarship here. Applications for support in 2025/26 will open on 1st January 2025 and have typically closed in June. Please check the Unite Foundation website each year for deadline details, as the deadline date may change each year.

Don’t be shy about contacting universities directly to ask if they can offer you any accommodation support as a care experienced student. Even if the Unite Foundation Scholarship is not offered at the university you are applying to, try asking the care experienced named contact if they have any other accommodation support available which could help you – it is always worth asking!

Another organisation which may be able to help with accommodation is the Rock Trust, which has been providing housing support to young people since 1991. Find out more about the housing support they can offer here.

Other Sources of Financial Support Information

HUB for SUCCESS - Finance and Bursaries Info