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Accommodation, bursaries and designated advisors

Support for you if you've lost touch with your parents

If you've lost touch with your parents, you might find it more difficult to get the personal and financial support you need at uni.

This is why we give you additional help, guidance and support if you're an estranged student. If you're aged 18–24 and have had a breakdown in your relationship with your parents that's unlikely to change, you're considered an estranged student.

Around 40 estranged students take advantage of our help and support each year. We're committed to support estranged students and are signed up to the Stand Alone Pledge.

How we support you

Here's a summary of the help and support you'll get as an estranged student when you study with us. You can also contact us for help and support during your application, even if we're not your first-choice uni.

Guaranteed year-round accommodation

We guarantee estranged students accommodation in a halls of residence all year round, so you don't have to worry about finding somewhere to live over the Christmas, Easter and summer holidays.

£1,000 Stand Alone Bursary

You could get a Stand Alone Bursary of £1,000 to help you cover your study costs. It isn't based on your income and you don't need to pay this back.

You might not be able to get this bursary alongside some of our other bursaries and scholarships. We'll help you understand which scholarships and bursaries are best for you.

Unite Scholarship – a free place in halls

This scholarship is awarded by the Unite Foundation and gives statutory Care Leavers or estranged students a free place in a Unite hall of residence for a maximum of 3 years.

There are a limited number of these scholarships, so not everyone who's eligible will be successful.

You can get this scholarship alongside the Stand Alone Bursary or Care Leavers Bursary.

How to apply for the Unite Scholarship

Applications are now open for 2024/25. The deadline for applying is 23.59 on 14th June 2024.

Full details, including eligibility criteria and the application, are available online from the Unite Foundation.

Please contact the Student Finance Centre for more information.


Restrictions

You won't be able to get this scholarship on foundation, repeat or placement years

London UoP students should contact the Student Finance Centre at the Portsmouth campus for advice about eligibility.

Designated finance and wellbeing advisors

You'll be assigned a member of staff from our Student Finance Centre who'll advise and guide you on your support needs. They can also help you apply for finance and funding before you start uni and during your course.

You'll also get a designated wellbeing advisor. They'll provide wellbeing support and help you access other wellbeing services quickly, if you need them.

Getting estranged student support

To find out how to get support, contact us by email at studentfinance@port.ac.uk or by phone on +44 (0)23 9284 3014.

We'll only use this information to give you the support you need – it won't affect how we assess your university application.

And don't forget to check out Moving UP, to hear stories from students with lived experiences of care and estrangement.

Leah's experience as an estranged student

 Other students have, like their parents, come down, help them move out, help them move in, give them money when they've run out of their loan and they've got somewhere to go for Christmas, I don't.

In a word, being an estranged student is hard.

Wellbeing are amazing, honestly.

So I think coming to uni is great, because you've also got all of the support services available and you can make friends.

(singing) I'm part of show choir and I know that if anything were to happen, I can go to them.

You don't want a formal wellbeing thing, you just want a hug.

I know that if I walked into choir and I needed a hug, I've got about 20 people who are going to form a line.

We like to support every student who has the capability of succeeding at university.

And we know we're aware that estranged students have particular challenges that they have to face.

And of course, naturally, we'd want to help them in every way we can.

And so we provide a bursary of a £1000 because we're also aware that they unlike other students, will want to stay for the whole year at the university, which we like to help them with.