Accommodation scholarships offer a home at University

Northumbria University, Newcastle, has partnered with The Unite Foundation to offer life-enhancing accommodation scholarships to students from less-represented backgrounds.   

The Unite Foundation’s new ‘Home at University: Widening Access & Participation Pilot’ offers accommodation scholarship for students who are care leavers or estranged from their families. It is a match-funded scheme between Northumbria University, the Unite Foundation, Astra Foundation, and the Dulverton Trust. Northumbria is one of four universities to be selected for the pilot scheme.

Scholarships will be open to students who are care leavers or estranged from their family, and who are applying for their first year undergraduate study to start in the academic year 2023/24. They will cover accommodation and bills for 365 days a year for up to three years of study.

Unite Foundation Director Fiona Ellison said: ‘We’re delighted to be welcoming four new partner universities into The Unite Foundation family. The ‘Home at University: Widening Access & Participation Pilot’ will enable us to offer up to 17 new scholarships across four additional higher education providers. This means 17 care leavers or estranged students will have more choice when applying for a Unite Foundation scholarship and be able to take advantage of everything university has to offer.

“We’re excited to work with Northumbria on this new scholarship. This pilot will enable us to reach students wishing to study in the North East, as the Unite Foundation currently don’t have any partners in the region. This coupled with strong institutional engagement from the 2022 THE University of the Year and Northumbria’s role supporting North East Raising Aspirations Partnership, will ensure that learning and insight from this work is shared with university partners across the North East.’

Graham Wynn, Pro Vice-Chancellor (Education) from Northumbria added: “Our ambition at Northumbria is to provide more opportunities for all our students and graduates to succeed in their studies, career and life ambitions, and we are absolutely delighted to be partnering with the Unite Foundation on this scholarship initiative. We very much look forward to welcoming our scholarship students into our Northumbria learning community.”

The pilot scheme will open for applications on The Unite Foundation website from January 1st 2023 and is open to all care leaver or estranged students applying to first year undergraduate courses starting in the academic year 23/24.

The Unite Foundation is an independent registered charity offering unique accommodation scholarships for care leavers and estranged young people at universities across the UK.

In January 2022 Northumbria launched its Higher Education Without Barriers campaign to enable talented students from all backgrounds to access higher education. Supported by businesses, charitable trusts, and alumni, the campaign has raised over £2m and benefited more than 800 students in outreach, scholarships, hardship, well-being, and enterprise.