Posted Wednesday 22 July 2015
Kingston University alumni are raising money to support care leavers studying at Kingston by taking part in the Royal Borough of Kingston 10-mile run.
The money raised will go towards care leaver bursaries – non-repayable financial support of £1,500 per year for each care leaver student at Kingston University.
Kingston University runs one of the country's leading outreach and support programmes for local authority care leavers in higher education. Only 6% of the UK's care leavers go on to attend higher education at the age of 19, compared to 49% of their peers. It is our ambition to both increase this figure and to ensure local authority care leavers have the support they need to realise the opportunities presented by their time at university. We're proud that Kingston attracts amongst the highest number of care leaver students nationally each year.
University can seem a daunting prospect to young people in local authority care many of whom lack the support, encouragement and belief that they can go to university and achieve. We address this challenge in part through our outreach work – which includes support from our alumni who have recently taken part in our inspire the future campaign raising the sights of young people by telling them about the opportunities that university opened up to them.
KU Cares, our support programme for care leavers, is a flagship part of our widening participation agenda. Nationally recognised as exemplary by Buttle UK, our work with care leavers has been highly commended by the Times Higher Education Awards and shortlisted at the Guardian Awards.
Do drop us an email at alumni@kingston.ac.uk or call us on 020 8417 3270 to let us know you're running.
30 May 2024