Student group

Last month, former CEL Research Fellow Dr Jacqueline Priego (currently Senior Lecturer in Social Psychology at the University of Portsmouth) and Professor Debbie Holley, Head of CEL, presented findings from their study “Students who bounce back: A research project with student carers at Bournemouth University”, as part of the Society for Research into Higher Education’s Online Webinar Series 2018.

The presentation is titled “‘All of us put other people first’: Narratives from a participatory photodiary study with university student carers” and took place within webinar Higher Education narratives beyond the academy. A recording of the session and related materials are available here.

Presentation Summary: Drawing on research with university student carers, the presentation offers recommendations to support this population. Our starting point is the current policy context in which caring responsibilities are seemingly incompatible with full-time higher education. Through findings from visual and textual data generated in co-production with student carers, we underscore the multi-layered challenges they face when simultaneously performing their caring duties and pursuing a degree. We show that student carers are conscious of their societal role and appreciative of the support available, but also susceptible to misrecognition, physical and mental strain, and barriers to accessing support within and outside the University.

The webinar series provides “a safe space where researchers can share their research in an engaging, relevant and informative way”. The webinar also included the presentation of the project “From student to graduate: Four learners’ perspectives of the professional doctorate journey”, by Dr Louise Webber and colleagues.