A home is not an add-on: why accommodation belongs at the heart of access and participation

This blog was kindly authored by Fiona Ellison, Co-Director of the Unite Foundation.

Accommodation is often treated as a student service. For care experienced and estranged students, however, it is fundamental to whether access to higher education translates into continuation, attainment and completion. A university place does not provide a meaningful opportunity to succeed if a student cannot rely on a safe, stable place to live throughout their studies.

This question sits squarely within the work of the Department for Education’s access and participation task and finish group, of which I am a core member. Since the end of last year, colleagues from across the sector have been developing practical, evidence-based proposals to help more students from disadvantaged backgrounds and under-served areas access higher education. But access cannot be measured by entry alone: the group’s work must also consider what enables students to remain, progress and thrive once they arrive.

The evidence and the question of scale

The Unite Foundation’s accommodation scholarships are currently the only intervention evidenced at Office for Students Tier 2 level to significantly improve progression, completion and attainment outcomes for care experienced students. That finding makes the next question unavoidable: if secure accommodation improves outcomes, how can the sector extend it to more students?

The potential need is substantial, although differences in definitions and data collection make it difficult to identify a single eligible population. Data from the DfE show that, in 2020/21, 12 per cent of pupils who had been looked after continuously for at least 12 months entered higher education by age 19, compared with 45 per cent of other pupils. UCAS recorded 8,930 UK applicants with a care background in 2022 – 1.6 per cent of all UK applicants and found that 63 per cent of care experienced applicants considered guaranteed accommodation important when researching their options.

At the Unite Foundation, we’ve been thinking deeply about how we can extend safe and stable accommodation to more care experienced and estranged students. Following successful pilots with 15 universities and more than 50 scholarship students, we are moving to a new model. Every partner university will have the option to use its own accommodation, enabling grant funding to flow into the university sector. We will cover 75 per cent of the cost of the scholarship, directly investing in higher education institutions, with universities providing the additional 25 per cent match funding. By sharing the cost and making better use of existing accommodation, the model will enable us to offer a rent-free #HomeAtUniversity to more care experienced and estranged students.

In 2027/28, we expect to work with 41 universities – our largest group of higher education partners to date—and support 110 Unite Foundation scholarships, our biggest annual cohort. Eligible care experienced and estranged students will be able to apply from 1 January 2027 at participating universities across England, Scotland and Wales. These figures matter not simply because they mark growth for the Foundation, but because they will test whether a matched-funding approach can extend proven support across a diverse group of institutions.

From individual scholarships to institution-wide action

The commitment of these 41 universities is significant, but scholarships can reach only a proportion of care experienced and estranged students. The challenge for the sector is therefore twofold: to extend targeted financial support where possible, while ensuring that every institution removes the wider accommodation barriers facing students without family support.

A safe and stable #HomeAtUniversity also depends on guaranteed year-round accommodation, support to overcome the guarantor barrier, help on arrival, personal housing plans and record-keeping that enables universities and purpose-built student accommodation providers to identify and support their care experienced and estranged students. The wider lesson is that accommodation policy must be joined up with access, finance, communications and student support.

The Unite Foundation’s Blueprint turns these principles into a framework and free resources for accommodation providers. Two recent additions reflect lessons from our university partners. The first, ‘compassionate communications through accommodation systems’, shows how small changes to automated messages, including communications about rent arrears, can help students feel safer and better supported. Routine systems can have very different effects on students who do not have family support or a financial safety net.

The second new addition to our Blueprint, ‘student belonging through community’, recognises that finance and systems are necessary but not sufficient. A home also depends on human connection. Networks such as the All of Us community help students build relationships within their accommodation and beyond, strengthening their sense of belonging in their #HomeAtUniversity. For institutions, the implication is that accommodation should be understood not only as a place to live, but also as part of the infrastructure that supports connection, continuation and success.

From good practice to institution-wide change

We’ve now opened our annual open call for universities that share #HomeAtUniversity ambitions for care experienced and estranged students and are interested in hosting a cohort of scholarship students. The expression of interest process for 2027/28 is now live.

Building a #HomeAtUniversity requires coordination across access and participation, accommodation, finance, student experience and other university teams. Our partners consistently tell us that senior leadership provides the vision and momentum needed to bring those functions together. During Care Leavers’ Month in November, we will therefore hold a free webinar for university senior leaders to share perspectives on what effective institutional leadership looks like in practice.

The Department for Education’s access and participation work is an opportunity to connect national ambition with evidence from practice. For care experienced and estranged students, access cannot be separated from whether they have a secure place to live throughout their studies. The sector now has evidence that accommodation support can improve outcomes, an emerging model for delivering it at greater scale and practical tools for building the wider support around it. The question is whether universities and policymakers are prepared to treat a safe and stable home as a core condition of participation and success.