‘From students to graduates: Examining the post-graduation transitions of care-experienced students in Wales’
Care-experienced young people have some of the lowest rates of participation in higher education in the UK and they experience multiple and complex challenges in navigating transitions to both university and independence. Whilst extensive research has highlighted the factors which facilitate or hinder care-experienced students’ access to university, there has been considerably less attention to their transitions from university to life beyond it.
Research carried out by Dr Ceryn Evans at Swansea University is exploring the experiences of care experienced university students as they navigate through university and embark on transitions from university to post-graduation life. This research aims to understand what helps care experienced students to make positive transitions from university to a range of destinations, including post-graduate study, work, volunteering or other. The study hopes to generate new insights around the factors that facilitate or hinder care experienced students’ transitions, so that future generations of students can be better supported in making positive transitions from university to post-graduation life.
Ceryn would like to hear from care experienced students in universities across Wales, especially those who are in their 3rd or final year of study, in order to gain a better understanding of their experiences of university and their hopes and plans for when they graduate. She would also like to hear from care experienced graduates, especially those who have graduated in the last 3 years, to understand their experiences of graduating from university and to understand the things that have helped or hindered them in making the transition from student to graduate.
If you would like to take part in the research, or would like to know more about the study, please contact Ceryn Evans (Ceryn.Evans@swansea.ac.uk).
