Marie-Pierre Moreau considers the place of care and carers in higher education and asks if student parents need more support

Gone are the days when English universities were mostly populated by white, middle-class and child-free young men. One group whose presence in academia has quickly grown over the past 30 years is those of students with caring responsibilities. Student parents, in particular, now represent about a tenth of full-time students and over a third of part-time students from England. Yet they often remain broadly invisible in the physical and policy spaces of higher education, both at national and institutional levels. As an example, policy texts rarely make reference to student parents and most universities do not collect data on students' caring responsibilities.

It is not just in education policy that student parents are sidelined, but in a lack of research on care in higher education. With the support of the Nuffield Foundation, PhD student Charlotte Kerner and I were able to conduct a research project looking at the experiences of student parents, and how these are shaped by university policies in ten English institutions. Their policies were analysed and some interviews were conducted with a range of student parents and members of staff.

The study shows student parents face a range of issues, which can not only be explained by their dual status, but also by their concentration in groups which are disadvantaged in society. Financial hardship is a common pattern among student parents, as they have limited availability to undertake paid work. This is particularly the case for those parents of pre-school children who are not eligible for the childcare grant. Student parents are also often time-poor and trying to reconcile the challenging and conflicting demands of a family while studying.

The emotional aspects of being a student parent were often foregrounded in their stories. Many discussed their mixed feelings, talking of the benefits of gaining a degree for themselves and for their children, yet simultaneously fearing that they were not 'good enough' to do their best at both.

These feelings of guilt are reflective of a past era, when students were expected to be completely available for their studies. Now, many feel they do not receive the support they need from their institution, particularly in relation to those more subjective aspects of their experience which are harder to measure. One student said they still feel like they have "this guilty secret" and despite being satisfied with the support they need, having a family "all the bloody time ... gets in the way".

Continue reading on the http://www.theguardian.com/higher-education-network/blog/2012/dec/13/student-parents-university-support-care