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Student parents and women’s education
We have a long-standing interest in women’s education, with particular emphasis on ways that women are disadvantaged in accessing or benefiting from educational opportunities.
Recent decades have seen radical improvement in women’s access to, and participation in further and higher education. But student parents (the large majority of whom are women) still face significant barriers to accessing and completing courses.
Information about student parents is limited because institutions are not required to collect relevant data, but they face a range of challenges around combining their parental and educational responsibilities.
If you are interested in applying for a grant, please read more about our priorities for funding in this area.
Our work in this area
- FE to HE - Supporting student parents' transition. Project details
- The role of informal childcare. Project details
- Access to education and training for young adult carers. Project details
- Childcare for adult learners in further education. A briefing paper published in partnership with the Daycare Trust. Project details
- Care Matters: A guide to the Carers (Equal Opportunities) Act 2004 by Philippa Russell. Project details
- A guide to support for adult learners caring for disabled children or other family members by Philippa Russell. Project details
- The educational gender gap, catch up and labour market performance. Project details
The Elizabeth Nuffield Education Fund
Our focus on student parents is a progression from the work previously funded under the Elizabeth Nuffield Education Fund, which provided financial support to individual women towards the cost of their education. This programme is closed and we no longer give grants to individual women in higher education for help with the costs of caring for children or adult relatives with special needs.
Last Updated Tue, 2 March 2010