Recording and recognising the experiences of estranged students in higher education

​In their report from 2015, Stand Alone and the Unite Foundation suggested that one of the biggest barriers estranged students face is a lack of understanding around family estrangement such that it is regarded as taboo: “Stand Alone has found that societal knowledge and awareness regarding family estrangement and disownment is currently low but, conversely, stigma is high” (Bland & Shaw, 2015, p.24). I wanted to find out more about the existence and experience of estranged students at my university and use that knowledge to raise awareness and in so doing, challenge the stigma around estrangement. ​ I also thought that the findings might be of use to the institution and could be incorporated into subsequent Access and Participation Plans. In 2018, the Office for Students made reference to estranged students as an under-represented group of students in its Guidance suggesting that universities may wish to consider the support they provide for them in future Plans (OfS, 2018). This presentation reports on the findings of a small institutional research project at a university in England, UK, which used the method of photo-elicitation with a group of estranged students to find out more about their experiences and in so doing raise awareness of familial estrangement and its impact on students