Accommodation, bursaries and advisors
If you've lost touch with your parents, you might find it more difficult to get the personal and financial support you need at uni — so we offer you additional help, guidance and support for estranged students.
If you're aged 18–24 and have had a breakdown in your relationship with your parents that's unlikely to change, you're considered an estranged student.
Around 40 estranged students take advantage of our help and support each year. We're committed to support estranged students and are signed up to the Stand Alone Pledge.
Getting support as an estranged student
To find out how to get support, contact us by email at independent@port.ac.uk or by phone on +44 (0)23 9284 3076.
We'll only use this information to give you the support you need — it will not affect how we assess your university application.
How we support you
Here's a summary of the help and support you'll get as an estranged student when you study with us. You can also contact us for help and support during your application, even if we're not your first-choice uni.
Housing support
Guaranteed year-round accommodation
We guarantee estranged students accommodation in a halls of residence all year round.
This means you don't have to worry about finding somewhere to live over the Christmas, Easter and summer holidays.
A free place in halls — with the Unite Scholarship
This scholarship gives statutory Care Leavers or estranged students a free place in a Unite hall of residence for a maximum of 3 years, awarded by the Unite Foundation.
Full details are available online from the Unite Foundation. There are a limited number of these scholarships, so not everyone who's eligible will be successful, but you can get this scholarship alongside the Stand Alone Bursary or Care Leavers Bursary.
Applications for 2024/25 have now closed. Applications for 2025/26 are expected to open in January 2025. Contact our Student Finance Centre for more information.
Financial support
£1,000 stand alone bursary
You could get a Stand Alone Bursary of £1,000 to help you cover your study costs.
This bursary is not based on your income and you don't need to pay it back.
You might not be able to get this bursary alongside some of our other bursaries and scholarships, but we'll help you understand which scholarships and bursaries are best for you.
A designated adviser
You'll get a designated member of staff who'll advise and guide you on your support needs the whole time you're at university. Our named adviser is Paula Bailey who can be contacted at independent@port.ac.uk.
When you start your course, they'll make sure you have all the information you need to access the student support services including help with academic, disability and wellbeing needs.
You'll receive a newsletter every term so you can stay up-to-date with opportunities and events to enhance your university experience
Stories from our students
Leah's experience as an estranged student
Other students have, like their parents, come down, help them move out, help them move in, give them money when they've run out of their loan and they've got somewhere to go for Christmas, I don't.
In a word, being an estranged student is hard.
Wellbeing are amazing, honestly.
So I think coming to uni is great, because you've also got all of the support services available and you can make friends.
(singing) I'm part of show choir and I know that if anything were to happen, I can go to them.
You don't want a formal wellbeing thing, you just want a hug.
I know that if I walked into choir and I needed a hug, I've got about 20 people who are going to form a line.
We like to support every student who has the capability of succeeding at university.
And we know we're aware that estranged students have particular challenges that they have to face.
And of course, naturally, we'd want to help them in every way we can.
And so we provide a bursary of a £1000 because we're also aware that they unlike other students, will want to stay for the whole year at the university, which we like to help them with.
Moving UP
Get help with your next steps and hear from students with lived experiences of care and estrangement.
From our experience
This podcast is all about celebrating the different experiences of individual students at university — particularly students who have experience of the care system or are estranged from their parents.
