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The University of Southampton
The Student Hub Support and wellbeing

Student Carers

Students with caring responsibilities alongside their studies may need find they need some additional information or support.

Some students may not regard themselves as being an official carer. Your caring role might only be a short term commitment, like looking after someone who’s been involved in an accident or, it could be an ongoing, long term responsibility such as caring for someone who has an illness or a disability.

Student Carers

The Carers Trust define carers as those “who care, unpaid, for a family member or friend with an illness or disability, mental health condition or an addiction”.

A carer can be any age, and the person you look after doesn't have to be living in the same house as you. The help and assistance provided by carers can vary significantly and you may be classed as a carer if you do any of the following:

• Provide emotional support
• Look after siblings, parents, partners or grandparents
• Provide physical care, including helping someone in and out of bed
• Help someone communicate
• Manage the family budget and pay bills
• Manage prescriptions and help provide medication
• Undertake day-to-day tasks such as cooking, housework and food shopping.

You may also be the main care provider for your child, further information on the support available to Student Parents can be found here .

Juggling such responsibilities alongside your academic studies can be challenging and could place additional stress on your own physical and mental health. You may find that these commitments also have an impact on your studies, financial situation, relationships and general student life.

The information below details some of the support available to student carers who studying with us and how to access it.

Guidance and support

The University has a wide range of support available to you, should you need any advice or guidance, at any point during your studies:

Academic

If you have any concerns about your academic studies, your Personal Academic Tutor (PAT) is there to advise and support you. We encourage you to discuss any issues, which may affect your studies with your PAT. At the start of the year, we would encourage you to let your PAT or lecturers know about your caring responsibilities, so they are able to support you and your individual needs. It may be that you'll need to apply for special considerations or request an assignment extension because of your caring commitments during your studies; if you do your PAT will be able advise you.

If you are unsure how to contact your PAT, your Student Office will be able to help put you in contact and/or arrange an appointment.

Your Student Office deals with the administrative aspects of your programme, including those relating to coursework, assessments and exams. If you are unable to attend any timetabled lectures or seminars for any reason, you may need to inform your Student Office.  You can find out how to contact your School’s Student Office here .

Managing Your Work Load

If juggling your care commitments alongside your studies is something you’ve not encountered before, or even if it’s something you’ve been doing for quite a while, planning your workload in advance will help ensure you stay on track with any deadlines. The University's Assignment Planner is a step-by-step guide to help you plan, organise and find the resources you need to complete individual assignments. You can save your work and return to the planner at any time.

There’s also a wide variety of productivity tools available online which can help you stay on top of your workload and other priorities, such as:

  • GoConqr - GoCongr allows you to put together creative resources such as flashcards, flowcharts and mind maps.
  • Trello - Trello's boards, lists and cards allow you to organise your work in a fun and flexible way.
  • Evernote - Evernote allows you to take notes anywhere, find information faster and share your ideas with anyone.
  • Quizlet - Quizlet makes it easy to create interactive study materials like flashcards and diagrams.
  • MindMup - MindMup allows you to create unlimited mind maps for free and store them in the cloud.

Basic memberships for the above resources are free. Paid membership options are available to those who require improved functionality at a cost to themselves. The University cannot accept responsibility for external websites.

Wellbeing

If you find yourself struggling with something whilst you're at University, it can help to talk to someone about what you're going through. Talking to someone can make a big difference to how you feel; the University can provide 24/7 any emotional and wellbeing support throughout your time. Contact the Student Hub , for further information and if you ever need to reach out to someone.

Financial

The University’s Student Support Fund is designed to help should you find yourself in hardship at any point during your studies. Further information on eligibility and how to apply can be found here . If you need to travel due to your caring responsibilities then the Team are able to take this into consideration.

Advice & Tips

  • Download our official MySouthampton app onto your phone or tablet; this gives you easy access to your timetable, campus maps, university emails, travel information and more.
  • As you settle in to university life take some time to familiarise yourself with your campus – locate your Student Office, check out the Library and find the perfect spot for grabbing lunch.
  • To help you study from any location, a number of University systems can be accessed remotely. The Southampton Virtual Environment (SVE) gives you access to your University desktop including all your files and the most popular pieces of software, from any device in any location. Microsoft365 can also downloaded to your personal device free of charge as a student at the university.
  • Everybody’s life and demands are different but managing your time effectively and making a plan that fits your study and home life commitments will help keep things on track.
  • If you need any help or support with managing your studies and caring commitments, speak to those around you - family, friends, tutors and advisors - who may be able to offer a hand or help you get on top of your workload.
  • Your family and friends at home can also provide an invaluable source of support and it can be useful to share with them aspects of your university life. Speak to those around, share with them your study plans and agree a time and space where you can study.
  • Look after your own wellbeing; a bit of respite and self care can go a long way. Remember if you don't look after yourself and your own wellbeing, you won't be able to care for another.

Parking Permits for Student Carers

Parking for students at the University is extremely limited and permit applications are restricted. You can only apply for a parking permit once you have created your university computing account and applications are submitted via the online database .

For those with caring responsibilities, you may need to supply supporting documentation from a social worker or a copy of your carer's assessment as part of your application and all cases are considered on a case by case basis.

If you’re commuting from home, you’ll find further information on travel and parking permits on our dedicated page for Living at Home Students .

Guidance for Student Carers

Notify Your GP

Once you start caring, or if you already are caring for someone, we recommend that let your GP know. It can be recorded confidentially on your medical notes and if your GP knows you’re a carer, this will help them to offer you the specific advice and support you need for example:

  • Explain medical conditions of and treatments for the person you care for
  • Services you can get from the NHS
  • Other places where you can get help and advice
  • Home visits to you or the person you care for if you can’t get to the surgery
  • Arranging appointments for both you and the person you care for at the same time
  • Arranging for repeat prescriptions to be delivered to your local pharmacy (if available)

Carer's Assessment

You are entitled to an assessment of your needs to help establish how you can balance your own health and wellbeing with your role as a carer. The assessment is free and your local council will use it to decide what support to give you. The assessment is usually a face-to-face meeting with someone from your local council, or from another organisation on behalf of your local council .

If your circumstances change you can ask for your assessment to be carried out again, this is particularly important if you can no longer provide the same level of care you’ve done in the past or if the needs of the person you care for have changed.

Further information on Carer's Assessments can be found here .

Carer's Allowance

Unfortunately, full-time students aren’t eligible to claim Carer’s Allowance. If you’re claiming Carer's Allowance prior to starting your course at the University, your eligibility for this benefit should be stopped once you've enrolled.

It is important that you notify the Jobcentre Plus that you have started full-time study to make sure you do not accrue subsequent overpayment. To find out what other benefits could be affected as a full time student, please click here .

Managing your caring responsibilities

Jointly is an online tool which is designed to help support people caring for someone; it aims to make it a little easier to coordinate care provision and communicate with those who share the responsibilities. You may find these beneficial when trying to balance your caring responsibilities alongside your studies.

You can also access benefits and discounts through the CarerSmart scheme, created by the Carers Trust to help carers and people with care needs.

Getting Involved

There are many ways to get involved with university life and many opportunities to meet new people; try to explore the opportunities available to you, as these can be a great way of developing a peer support network.

Clubs and Societies

The University of Southampton Students’ Union has over 200 societies covering a wide range of interests; these are a great opportunity to meet new people and maybe even try something new.

University Activities & Events

The University and Students' Union put on a range of activities and events throughout the year. To stay up to date with everything that is happening on our campuses make sure to check SUSSED , the University and Students’ Union Events Calendars, as well as the University’s social media channels .

Become a Student Ambassador

Becoming an ambassador is great way to both meet other student and learn new skills, all while earning money. We are always looking for enthusiastic and friendly students to become Student Ambassadors to help with events organised by our Recruitment and Outreach team.

Working as a student ambassador can be fun and varied, providing you with a huge range of exciting challenges and opportunities to get involved with, alongside your studies. Further information and how to apply can be found here .

University Facilities

Make the most of those breaks in your timetable to do a bit of studying or to socialise with friends; you will find plenty of  facilities and resources on campus:

  • Room Finder can be used to find any rooms on campus that have not been booked and are free to use. Any of the empty common learning spaces can be used for studying or group work.
  • Hot Water is free of charge in all University and Students' Union catering outlets, so you can brew your own tea or coffee, just remember to pack your travel mug.
  • There are a number of catering outlets on our campuses, use the online campus maps to show our catering outlets by selecting the catering layer; some of them even feature opening times and menus built directly into the map.
  • If you ever find your devices running low on battery and need to ensure you're contactable, then there are charging Lockers available in the Students’ Union on the Concourse, speak to SUSU Reception for further information.

Helpful Resources

There is additional information on our website for those living at home whilst they study.

The following websites have some useful advice and guidance for those balancing studying alongside caring responsibilities.

UCAS - Students with Caring Responsibilities

Carers Trust

Hope Support

Carers in Southampton

Southampton City Council - Carers

Carers UK

No Limits

NHS Social care and support guide

The University cannot accept responsibility for external websites.
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