Being a parent at university
Considering applying to university and taking the kids along for the ride? Find out what funding is available and the extra support you can get to make uni accessible to you and your family.
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The prospect of applying to university can be daunting to anyone, let alone if you've got children or dependants to consider.
Not only have you got the usual worries every prospective student has of which university to choose, where to live and how to pay for it, you need to think for your children too.
Whether you're a parent applying to uni or you're already at university and expecting a child, we've got all the info you need to help you get through and graduate.
What's in this guide?
Funding for student parents
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If you're heading to university with kids, you'll be very happy to hear there's a host of further financial support available to you and your family
On top of the Maintenance Loan and Tuition Fee Loans available to all students, there are further grants and bursaries available to those studying with children. We've outlined some of the different types of student funding available below.
The loans and grants available will depend on which part of the UK you're from and where you're studying.
Funding for student parents in England
These are the different types of funding available if you're from England and applying to university.
Maintenance Loans
If you're applying to university as a parent, you will automatically be considered an independent student. This means Student Finance won't take your parents' income into consideration when working out what Maintenance Loan is available to you.
However, if you are married, in a civil partnership or over 25 and living with your partner, you'll need to provide details of your partner's income to Student Finance England. Their income will then be taken into consideration as part of your household income in the same way that your parents' income would be if you were a dependent student.
Student Finance will take off an allowance of £1,130 for each child that is financially dependent on your partner before calculating the Maintenance Loan available to you. A further £1,130 will be taken off your partner's residual income if they are also a student themselves.
They will then use this figure to decide how much Maintenance Loan you'll be offered and how much they feel your partner should be contributing towards your time at university. For more details on exactly how much may be available to you, you can see our full guide to Maintenance Loans.
Tuition Fee Loans are not affected by any household income, so you will be entitled to a Tuition Fee Loan to cover the full cost of your tuition at university. Most universities charge the maximum tuition fee of £9,250 per year.
Parents' Learning Allowance
If you're a full-time student at uni with a child, you should be eligible for Parents Learning Allowance to help with your study costs. This doesn't have to be paid back.
The amount you receive will again depend on your household income, but £50 – £1,963 is available to those with a household income of less than £18,835.98.
To receive the maximum grant of £1,963, you must have a household income of less than £14,910.
The money will be paid in three instalments directly into your student bank account. This is in addition to your other student finance and won't affect any benefits you're receiving.
Childcare Grant
If your child is under 15, or under 17 with special educational needs, you should be entitled to a childcare grant of 85% of your childcare costs or a fixed maximum amount – whichever is less.
If you have just one child, the fixed maximum amount is £193.62 a week. If you have more than one child, you can receive a maximum of £351.95 to help towards the costs of childcare while you're studying.
This grant is paid into a Childcare Grant Payments Service (CCGPS) account. Your childcare provider will then request the payments directly from the account which you can approve.
The childcare grant is also dependent on your household income. This must be below £19,795.23 if you're applying for one child and £28,379.39 if you're applying for two or more children.
Maintenance Loan and Grant
Maintenance packages for Welsh students are a mixture of grants (which don’t have to be paid back) and loans (which do have to be paid back). How much of each you receive will depend on what your household income is. For full details, you can check out our guide to Student Finance in Wales.
Childcare Grant
If you’re an undergraduate student from Wales studying with a child, Student Finance Wales also has a Childcare Grant to help cover childcare costs.
This is similar to that provided by Student Finance England, whereby you can get up to 85% of your childcare costs covered as a grant. However, the maximum amount available is slightly lower in Wales capped at £189 per week for one child or £324 per week for two or more dependant children.
You’ll need to confirm your childcare costs three times a year and the money will be paid directly into your student bank account.
If you have a child aged three or four years old and you’re enrolled on either an undergraduate or postgraduate course, you may also be entitled to the Childcare Offer from the Welsh Government.
This scheme aims to help parents with the cost of childcare costs when returning to work and has recently been expanded to include parents who are students. Up to 30 hours of early education and childcare a week can be claimed for up to 48 weeks of the year.
Parents’ Learning Allowance
Whether your child is in childcare or not, you’ll still be entitled to the Parents’ Learning Allowance. This is also a grant that doesn’t need to be paid back.
Between £52 and £1,896 a year is available and this will usually be paid in three instalments at the beginning of each term into your bank account. The amount you receive is dependent on your household income.
Special Support
Welsh students with children may also be entitled to an enhanced Maintenance Loan. This is often referred to as Special Support, or a Special Support Grant, but will have to be paid back.
If you’re a single parent or you have children and your partner is also a full-time student, you could get up to a further £5,161 of funding. The amount you receive will depend on your household income.
If you’re eligible for Special Support, The Department for Work and Pensions will disregard up to a maximum of £5,161 of your payment, meaning it won’t affect any benefits you claim.
These are the further funding options available to Scottish student parents heading to university.
Student Loans and Bursaries
You can apply to the Student Awards Agency Scotland (SAAS) for a Student Loan and Bursary to help fund your living costs. Unlike in other parts of the UK, this will be paid to you in monthly instalments.
The Student Loan is repayable and is based on your household income, but you’ll receive a minimum of £8,400 a year. The Bursary is free money, and as all undergraduates who are parents are considered independent students, you’ll receive £1,000 a year as long as your household income is £20,999 or less.
You can find more details of how much Student Loan you’ll receive in our guide to Student Finance in Scotland.
Discretionary Childcare Fund
This is available to any student parent who has one or more dependent children in registered childcare. You will need to apply directly to your university’s funding team and they will assess how much you need to cover your childcare costs.
To be eligible, you will need to have applied for all childcare funding from the government and child tax credits first.
In Scotland, all three- to five-year-olds are entitled to up to 1,140 hours of funded early learning and childcare a year. This is equivalent to approx 30 hours a week if used only in term time.
Lone Parents’ Grant
You can apply to the Student Awards Agency Scotland (SAAS) for a Lone Parents’ Grant if you’re a single parent and your child is living with you at least 50% of the time.
A grant of up to £1,305 a year is available, based on your income.
Lone Parents’ Childcare Grant
If you’re eligible for the Lone Parents’ Grant then you should also be able to get help with childcare costs from the Lone Parents’ Childcare Grant (LPCG). This is a further grant of up to £1,215 a year to help cover the cost of registered or formal childcare while you’re studying at university.
The Lone Parents’ Childcare Grant is administered by the university you’re attending from the university’s Childcare Funds. It is not income-assessed but will take into account what you’re paying for registered childcare.
Maintenance Loan
You can apply to Student Finance Northern Ireland for a Maintenance Loan to help cover the costs of your day-to-day living. The amount you receive will depend on where you are studying and your household income.
For details of the maximum Maintenance Loans available, you can check out our guide to Student Finance in Northern Ireland.
Maintenance Grant and Special Support Grant
When you apply to Student Finance, they will also consider if you are eligible for a Maintenance Grant of up to £3,475. This is also dependent on your household income but is non-repayable.
The amount of grant you receive will affect the amount of Maintenance Loan you are entitled to. However, it won’t affect the amount of money you receive, just how much of it is repayable, and how much of it is free money.
A Special Support Grant is also available in place of the Maintenence Grant under certain circumstances. These include being a full-time student who is a lone parent of a child, or having a partner who is also a student when one or both of you are responsible for a child.
The amount you receive is the same as that of the Maintenance Grant. However, unlike the Maintenence Grant, any Special Support Grant you receive won’t be considered as income. Therefore, it won’t affect how much Maintenance Loan you receive, and it won’t be counted as income when applying for any state benefits.
Parents Learning Allowance
If you’re a full-time undergraduate in Northern Ireland with children, you can apply for Parents’ Learning Allowance to help with additional everyday costs.
Parents’ Learning Allowance is calculated based on your household income and doesn’t need to be paid back. You could receive between £50 and £1,538 depending on your circumstances.
Payments are made three times a year into your student bank account.
Childcare Grant
Student parents from Northern Ireland can apply for help with childcare costs while studying. You need to apply directly to Student Finance Northern Ireland at the same time as you apply for your other student finance.
They will ask you to estimate your childcare costs at the time and confirm them later in the year. Unlike in England, the Childcare Grant is paid directly to you to pay for your registered childcare provider. You can find further details of what childcare providers qualify in Northern Ireland on the student finance website.
In the 2024/25 academic year you could receive up to a maximum of £148.75 a week for one child in childcare or a maximum of £255 a week for more than one child in childcare. This will not affect any Universal Credit you may be claiming.
The Childcare Grant will not be paid for any free places, such as the free 15-hour Early Learning placement, but can still be claimed for any further hours or after-school care costs.
Support Funds
If you’re struggling for money at university, universities in Northern Ireland have special Support Funds to help you out. Though these are available to all students, those with children, especially lone parents, are a priority for these funds.
You can apply for Support Funds through your university’s student services department and they will ask for evidence of your financial hardship including bank statements etc. Support Funds are paid on top of any other Student Finance you are entitled to.
What benefits can student parents claim?
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It can be pretty confusing trying to work out what benefits you are entitled to when studying at university. Most students are not entitled to claim any benefits. However, as a student parent things are a bit different.
Universal Credit
You could be entitled to Universal Credit if:
- You’re a single parent
- You are part of a couple responsible for a child and one of you is a full-time student.
Your Maintenance Loan will treated as income when working out how much Universal Credit you are entitled to. Tuition fee loans and those for further study costs will be excluded. This includes any Special Support Loans or Grants as these are intended to help with study costs.
Universal Credit is paid monthly and is based on your circumstances that month. If the assessment period for a particular month happens to fall on the first day of the summer holidays, or you’ll be on holiday for the whole of the subsequent assessment period, your student loan won’t be taken into consideration for that period.
For further information on how much Universal Credit you may receive you can check out our guide to receiving benefits as a student.
New Style Jobseeker’s Allowance
If you are a full-time student and a lone parent, it’s possible to get New Style Jobseeker’s Allowance in the summer holidays.
However, this is only the case if you have worked and paid Class 1 National Insurance in the past two to three years.
Child Benefit
Child Benefit is paid to all parents regardless of whether you are a student or not.
At the time of writing, you’ll receive £25.60 per week for your first or only child, and a further £16.95 a week for each other child. This is usually paid every four weeks directly into your account.
Childcare at university
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You’ll be happy to hear that most universities have childcare available on campus. These are mainly provided for students and staff at the university.
Places at the nurseries on campus can be quite limited, so make sure you get your name down quickly if you’ve decided to apply to university.
Although we say that most universities have childcare facilities, it’s worth doing your research first to check what’s available on campus and the likelihood of you getting a place there. It’s not the end of the world if you don’t get a place on campus as it’s more than likely there’ll be other nurseries nearby.
As mentioned previously, all three and four-year-olds are entitled to free childcare in an early learning setting, such as a preschool. The amount of hours you are entitled to will depend on where you are studying. You can check which childcare providers are registered closest to your campus on the government website.
Here are the free childcare allowances for three and four-year-olds across the UK:
| Country | Free childcare allowance for 3–4 year-olds |
|---|---|
| England | 15 hours a week for 38 weeks (570 hours a year) |
| Scotland | 22 hours a week all year or 30 hours a week term-time only (1,140 hours a year) |
| Wales | Up to 30 hours a week (min 10 hours a week early education plus up to 20 hours a week childcare) |
| Northern Ireland | 12.5 hours a week (475 hours a year) |
Family accommodation at university
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Some universities offer family accommodation on or off campus for students with children. This however is by no means guaranteed.
As with nurseries, these places will be limited, so it’s important to let the university you’re applying to know as soon as possible that you will be responsible for a child during your studies.
Any family accommodation you may get through the university will only be available for the first year, so you’ll need to find suitable accommodation in the private sector for the remainder of your studies.
You may also decide that living in student accommodation on campus doesn’t really suit your family’s needs. The last thing you want is your children waking up when the students next door roll in at 3am after a night out.
Accommodation off campus will often offer more living space. So it’s worth thinking carefully about where you want to live and what will feel most comfortable for you and your family.
Make a trip to whichever university you are applying to on your own first and check out accommodation on offer both through the university and privately.
Do not turn up at university with your family without having secured your accommodation first. Temporary accommodation is going to be pricey and you can never be sure how long it will take to find what you need.
Further support for student parents
It’s important to remember that universities want you to succeed in your studies and the help and support will usually be there if you look for it.
Further support for student parents may include:
- Personal tutors – many universities will assign student parents a personal tutor who is there to turn to if you’re struggling to balance your studies with the full-time job of being a parent.
- Flexible timetables – if you’re finding it difficult to meet deadlines or attend lectures, your tutors will usually be able to help you come to a solution or find flexible study options for you. For example, if you’re struggling to get childcare to cover one of your weekly lectures, it may be that the same lecture is held at a different time which you can attend instead.
- Health and wellbeing support – student support teams at universities are there to give you advice and guide you in the right direction if you’re in need of any mental health support.
- Parent learner groups – many universities have communities of like-minded parent learners who meet up. This is the perfect opportunity to ask questions about any concerns you have and chat to fellow student parents.
It’s important to build up a support network so make sure you seek out all the help and support you can get to give yourself the best chance of graduating.
Your university will also have hardship funds available. These are emergency cash funds for students who are struggling financially.
