Support for care leavers and care experienced students
At ARU, we're committed to supporting our students who are Care Leavers and those who are Care Experienced.
If you're just starting to think about higher education, or in the process of applying to university, our Outreach Team is here to help you.
When you join ARU as a student, our Student Experience Team becomes your main point of contact and support.
What do ‘Care Leaver’ and ‘Care Experienced’ mean?
The term ‘Care Leaver’ comes from The Children (Leaving Care) Act 2000: a Care Leaver is someone who has been in the care of the Local Authority for a period of 13 weeks or more spanning their 16th birthday and is aged 25 or under. At ARU, we also include students who are aged 16-25 who have been referred to a Foyer by their Local Authority.
‘Care Experienced’ refers to anyone who has been or is currently in care or from a looked after background at any stage of their life, no matter how short, including adopted children who were previously looked after. Care may have been provided in a number of ways or settings such as foster care, kinship care, residential care or through being looked after at home with a supervision requirement.
We currently have over 140 students with experience of care studying with us.
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