For the first time, experience of the care system is identified as a life situation that can lead to disadvantage within the socioeconomically disadvantaged priority group in the National Access Plan (Higher Education Authority (HEA), 2024). This is the first report to look at the experience of care-experienced students in higher education. About the Research This research aims to inform the enhancement of support services in higher education institutions for care-experienced students and to raise awareness around supports in order to increase the number of care-experienced students who access, and graduate from, higher education. While research interest in the educational attainment of care-experienced children and youth, and adult care leavers, has increased in the last two decades in Ireland (see for example Brady and Gilligan, 2020), there is a dependence on anecdotal evidence from care-leaver students themselves and from Access Practitioners to understand their higher-education journey. This research is confined to an exploration of participants’ experience of accessing and participating in university as a student with care experience.

This research did not explore the students’ journey into care or their care experience. The research enquiry was informed by three research questions: 1. what challenges do care-experienced individuals encounter in accessing, participating and succeeding in higher education? 2. what supports them in accessing, participating and completing/succeeding in higher education? 3. what resources and supports are necessary to increase this number?