'Because they look at you differently'

1. 'Because they look at you differently' Understanding the experiences of estranged students in Higher Education

2. Dr. Rachel SpaceyREsearch FellowLIncoln HIgher education Research institute You are welcome to tweet about this presentation and its content @DrRESpacey @UOLHEResearch @FACEaccess #FACE2019 #estrangedstudents Please email me if you would like more information rspacey@lincoln.ac.uk

3. Why estranged students?

4. The projects Project 1 - 2017/18 Small institutional fund (LHERA) Photo-elicitation with estranged students at one university Small scale Qualitative – focus groups, images and logs Project 2 - 2018/19 Small institutional fund (LHERA) Online life writing with estranged students at universities in the UK Small scale (but more participants than project 1) Qualitative – life writing accounts

5. Recruitment Project 1  Difficult!  Hard to identify estranged students even in SLC/HEBBS data  Email to entire student population at UoL Financial incentives Opportunity  Eight participants Project 2  Also, quite difficult!  Social media – Twitter, asking for RTs  Financial incentive Opportunity Seventeen participants

6. Ethical issues Project 1  Secured ethical approval  Informed consent Individual meetings No names used unless they chose to identify themselves Permission to use images Refer to participants in subsequent publications as 'Student 1' etc. Project 2  Secured ethical opinion – new system – pro forma for information sheet, consent form Online – embedded information from pro-formas in Qualtrics survey package Recruitment via Twitter – could direct to survey url Participants can remain anonymous if they wish Refer to participants in subsequent publications as 'Student 1' etc.

7. Causes I grew up with a mum, dad and a younger brother in a hoarded home in a suburban area… The shower and fridge were mouldy, piles of rubbish blocked corridors and entire areas of rooms were lost to the hoard... I was not completely estranged when I left for university… but I had a very dysfunctional relationship with my family… [S1:P2] I was estranged during my second yr., when my stepdad kicked me out of the house [S16:P2] I left home after school and found myself homeless as things started to get bad at home [S3: P2] I was estranged from my mother ultimately following a heated argument, but our relationship has always been difficult. She was unsupportive, cold and there was very little attachment between us [S10:P2] 

8. Experiences of significance Moving In Accommodation Wellbeing Vacations Finance Academic Engagement Progression

9. MOving in S3:P1

10. Accommodation S7:P1

11. ACCOMMODATION

12. Wellbeing S1:P1

13. wellbeing

14. vacations S2:P1

15. vacations

16. finance S5:P1

17. Finance

18. Academic engagement S8:P1

19. Academic engagement

20. progression Student 6

21. progression

22. Conclusions S4:P1

23. Stand ALone pledge

24. References Bland, B. and Shaw, J. (2015) New Starts. The challenge of Higher Education without the support of a family network. Unite Foundation and Stand Alone. Available at: http://standalone.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2013/08/StandAloneUNITEfoundation.pdf(accessed 27 March 2019).  Office for Fair Access (2017) Topic Briefing: Estranged Students. Available at: https://www.offa.org.uk/universities-and-colleges/guidance/topic-briefings/topic-briefing-estranged-students/ (accessed 2 October 2017).  Office for Students (2019) People estranged from their families.  Available at: https://www.officeforstudents.org.uk/advice-and-guidance/promoting-equal-opportunities/evaluation-and-effective-practice/estranged-students/ (accessed 27 March 2019).  Taylor, Y. and Costa, C. (2019) Estranged Students in Higher and Further Education [Report]. Available at: https://strathprints.strath.ac.uk/66964/ (accessed 27 March 2019).