Invisible experiences: Understanding the choices and needs of university students with dependent children

Abstract

This paper analyses the results of a research project on the experiences and learning needs of students with dependent children in a 1960s university. The findings are based on semi‐structured interviews with university services and academic staff, as well as a questionnaire survey among students with dependent children and follow‐up in‐depth interviews with a sample of 18 of these students. The paper shows that, for those surveyed, future employment opportunities and being a role model for their children were the main motivations for entering higher education and that their choice of university was highly spatially restricted by their caring responsibilities. It also discusses the main issues students faced once at university, including time and timing, finance, childcare, confidence, sense of belonging and skills. The paper highlights how gender and other biographical characteristics influence parents' experiences and includes suggestions for lessening the barriers they face while at university.

Negotiating Time and Space for Study: Student-parents and Familial Relationships

“…Specific familial commitments such as taking children to school could thus be maintained. As other scholars have suggested, the notion of 'choice biographies' (du Bois Reymond, 1998) which has often been deployed to conceptualise the decision-making processes of 'traditional-age' students, seems to offer little analytical purchase on the experiences of older students with domestic responsibilities (Marandet and Wainwright, 2010).…”

Counting Family: Making the Family of International Students Visible in Higher Education Policy and Practice

“…Little data is collected or reported on Stephanie Doyle et al Counting Family the parental/family status of students by institutions or government agencies, and there is an absence of data collection systems (Martens and Grant, 2008;National Union of Students, 2009;Marandet and Wainwright, 2010;Moreau and Kernot, 2015). Moreau and Kernot (2015) found that only one of their 10 case studies of UK universities collected data on student parents.…”

“…What research literature there is highlights the invisibility of student parents despite their significant and growing numbers, and tends to focus on the tensions and challenges of combining being a parent (particularly a mother) with completing an academic qualification (Armenti, 2004;Kurtz-Costes et al, 2006;Springer et al, 2009;Marandet and Wainwright, 2010). At this juncture the generic research on the student parent may illuminate potential issues and future research on the international student parent (Martens and Grant, 2008;NUS, 2009;Marandet and Wainwright, 2010;Moreau and Kernot, 2015). Efforts to widen participation in the further and higher education sector in the UK had led to increases in the numbers of student parents, but little was known about their experience and needs.…”

Inequalities in students’ union leadership: the role of social networks

“…While unions can clearly respond to these situations in constructive ways -for example, by scheduling meetings during the day and/or making greater use of online forathe enduring importance of social networks for facilitating union involvement and leader recruitment acts as a barrier for those who find it hard to be physically present. Moreover, as the wider literature on students with caring responsibilities has shown, sometimes institutional policies and practices, such as prohibitions on bringing children onto campus and the scheduling of social events in the evenings and at weekends (Marandet and Wainwright, 2010), can make it harder for such students to socialise on campus, and thus establish strong friendship groups.…”