While the higher education landscape has changed radically since the late 1980s, a consistent feature of government policy has been to widen participation to students who were disproportionately excluded previously. Post-1992 universities in particular have experienced a substantial change in their student intake, but challenges remain in ensuring the retention and success of these students. This article argues that student homelessness is a significant and an under-researched barrier to students reaching their potential. The problem is explored here, illuminated by a focus group and a series of interviews involving 16 students from one school at a London post-1992 university. The impact of homelessness was far-reaching in terms of their emotional wellbeing and ability to fully participate in university life, including pressure on time and financial resources, inability to fully focus on studies, and limited engagement with fellow students and the wider university experience.

This study examines the experience of homeless university students. A focus group and in-depth interviews were conducted among 16 homeless students at a university in London to determine the factors that enable them to remain at university despite being homeless. Homelessness has been increasing in the UK since 2010, particularly in London. Combined with the widening participation initiative, which encourages access to Higher Education for more disadvantaged communities, this means that increasing numbers of students may face homelessness during their studies. The study demonstrates considerable personal resilience among homeless students. These students find it hard to fully engage with other students, or with the wider university experience. Most were in fact too embarrassed to tell their university friends that they were homeless. Key factors that promoted resilience were sense of purpose, personal determination, and the relationship with their families. The critical relationship was, however, with their children. Decisions to attend and remain at university were based not on having a role model, but on the desire to provide a positive role model to their children. The study also acknowledges wider structural factors; homelessness is influenced by national and international trends outside the influence of individual and institutional actors.

Student parents, particularly women, cite role modelling as a key reason to come to university and persist with their studies. However, this role modelling relationship remains largely unexplored. This study examines the role modelling relationship between student parents and their children. There are distinct practical and emotional challenges faced by student parents, particularly during the COVID-19 pandemic, and these impact on the role modelling relationship with their children. Using Bandura's notion of 'attention', we found that there are some potential problems with the theory and practice of student parent role modelling. The 19 students interviewed identified balancing academic study and family life as the key issue, but also identified space as a major concern for participants. Lack of access to the library and campus during COVID was particularly problematic for student parents in practical terms, and in undermining a sometimes-fragile sense of student identity. However, the students were not simply modelling a student identity or aspiration to their children, but demonstrating efficacy, that it was possible to achieve by overcoming obstacles. A key challenge in terms of role modelling was getting an appropriate balance between demonstrating determination, but concealing some of the significant stresses they faced in their studies.