Undergraduate Study
Realise is the University’s information service for care-experienced and estranged students. To learn more about the support available at Cambridge for care-experienced and estranged students, please consult our support pages.
If you are a care-experienced or estranged student, whether considering Cambridge or currently enrolled, and you have questions about support available to you, please email realise@admin.cam.ac.uk.
Similarly, if you are a foster carer or social worker and would like to know more about our work, please get in touch via the Realise email.
You can also sign up to one of our mailing lists for further news through the links on this page.
Please note, to cover the cost of travel to attend University Open Days, we offer a Travel Fund for those aged 16 or above who are currently in local authority care or from a care background.
Realise offers guidance and support to students who are considering higher education in general as well as Cambridge specifically.
Students can benefit from academic support events, mentoring, application support, and visit days. All of these are tailored to the needs of care-experienced students. Care leaver students who enrol at the University of Cambridge are entitled to extra funds via the Cambridge Bursary Scheme as well as 365 accommodation.
Realise offers two open days per year for care-experienced and estranged students. These take place in autumn and spring. Please sign up to a mailing list if you wish to be contacted about the next open day. We regret that we are unable to arrange bespoke visits for individuals. Please contact your link area College if you have a query about arranging a visit as an individual or group.
There are also several free enrichment and support programmes that care-experienced students have priority for when applying:
This is a programme that offers intensive pre-application support, including interview and assessment practice.
The Sutton Trust Summer Schools are one-week residential events that allow you to experience Cambridge from both academic and extracurricular perspectives.
This 17-month programme helps prepare you for success with your science, technology, engineering and maths A Levels.
Realise is proud to contribute to neaco’s Future You programme for care-experienced students and unaccompanied minors in East Anglia. This programme offers you the opportunity to learn more about neaco’s partner universities and further education colleges. You will also get the chance to learn about different subjects and meet other local care-experienced students.
If you want to study courses in the Arts, Humanities or Social Sciences and circumstances have prevented you from realising your academic potential, this is an opportunity not to miss!
The Cambridge Foundation Year is designed to help you realise your academic potential through a full-time course fully embedded in the University. In order to apply for the Cambridge Foundation Year, you must meet eligibility criteria. If you are care experienced, you will automatically be eligible for this opportunity.
Find out more about the Foundation Year course on our website, read about the next steps in your applicant journey, or sign up to the Foundation Year mailing list.
For any questions you may have, please don’t hesitate to contact: foundation.year@admin.cam.ac.uk
Realise offers a central point of contact for care-experienced and estranged students who want to understand the supports available to them at the university.
We also provide a listening ear to students who want to voice concerns, frustrations, or just have a chat. Students classed as independent by Student Finance England can also benefit from the enhanced Cambridge Bursary and 365 accommodation.
Realise provides both ad-hoc mentoring as well as structured, regular mentoring for students who feel they would benefit from it. This mentoring comes at no cost to students. You can ask for a mentoring session or a dedicated mentor at any time.
Mentoring can look however you want it to: maybe you would like a one-off session to better understand the university’s supports, or maybe you would like a regular contact to help you settle in Cambridge and support you with life skills. Either way, Realise can provide the type of mentoring that would help you best.
Care-experienced and estranged students can take part in regular social activities to meet each other and build their social network within the university. Invites to these events come via the Realise mailing list, so make sure to sign up if you aren’t already subscribed.
Care-experienced and estranged students can consult the Student Support page for an overview of the supports available to them both inside and outside of the university.
Realise works with professionals like foster carers, teachers, and social workers to help them understand the supports available at Cambridge.
We welcome questions and opportunities to collaborate. Please feel free to send a message to realise@admin.cam.ac.uk or sign up to our mailing list.
The University of Cambridge is committed to the support of our care-experienced and estranged students. We are a signatory of the Care Leaver Covenant and the Stand Alone Pledge, and we are working towards the NNECL Quality Mark.
The Realise Project has marked Foster Care Fortnight for successive years, through online webinars and in-person conferences at Homerton College. Foster carers and their foster children were invited to the college to meet staff and students and hear more about how to access higher education.
UCAS have published a guide for those advising care-experienced applicants. You can access it here.
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