For immediate release – Monday 20^th October  

Lone parents are prevented from equally accessing higher education, due to systemic barriers and insufficient financial supports, thereby negatively impacting on their long-term employment.  

“Education first? Lone parents’ lived experience of the challenges and benefits of participating in Higher Education” by Dr Fiona Dukelow (UCC), Dr Margaret Scanlon (UCC), Edith Busteed (UCC) and Dr Joe Whelan (TCD) highlights: 

• Lone parents remain under-represented in higher education¹, with both institutions and policymakers lacking data on their participation  
   

• Lone parents are not provided with clear pathways to higher education, which can create a reliance on state support if prevented from attaining well-paid, secure jobs. which is a critical anti-poverty measure for one-parent families 
   

• Lone parents face multiple additional barriers to higher education including a failure to acknowledge the additional care responsibilities they hold, not being provided sufficient financial supports to cover the real cost of education, housing, transport and childcare 

The research recommended that: 
 

• Government to move from a “work activation” to an “education first” approach for lone parents, which would increase their ability to attain high-paid, secure work. 
   

• Lone parents are given adequate financial and educational supports. SUSI grants and social welfare payments should fully reflect the real cost of participation. Access to affordable, quality childcare and secure housing must be made available. Supports must meet the needs of lone parent students, and more flexible learning options made available  

• Improved data collection and accountability from the Higher Education Authority and Department of Social Protection, including data collection on lone parent participation in higher education and for the Higher Education Authority to set clear participation targets in future Access Strategies. 

Karen Kiernan, CEO of One Family said: 
 
“We are delighted to be a research partner for this critical report. One-parent families on low incomes experience some of the highest levels of poverty, deprivation, social exclusion and homelessness in Ireland. To exit poverty requires a clear pathway to further or higher education, and the current system prevents lone parents from doing that, due to a lack of supports and too many barriers to their education. Access to education is a critical anti-poverty measure for one-parent families and government need to recognise that. We need free childcare for lone parents in higher education, adequate financial supports to cover the full cost of their education, and improved supports tailored to meet the needs of students who are parenting alone, so that they are met with understanding and a supportive system that empowers them to achieve their goals.” 
 
Dr Fiona Dukelow, Senior Lecturer in Social Policy, University College Cork said: 
 

“Lone parent students are a largely invisible group in higher education. They are also a very diverse group of students. Despite being recognised as a group whose access and participation in higher education needs to increase, behind this policy commitment lies a lack of data, a lack of targets and a lack of policy supports that would make a difference to lone parents who are considering or who are in higher education. The research reveals the huge challenges lone parents face as students, but also the huge importance of higher education to their and their children’s wellbeing, and why improving policy supports across a whole range of areas, from financial supports, to childcare, to higher education supports, is critical to improving their access, participation and student experience”.  
 
Lynn Ruane, Keynote Speaker for the research launch said:  

“I really welcome this important research which should be read by every policy maker and politician who wants to see an end to poverty in this country. The research restates what we already know; that education can play a key role in ending child and family poverty through targeted, tailored and meaningful supports as well as guaranteed funding that dismantles the structural barriers faced by those parenting alone and their children. Whole families depend on adequate state and higher education interventions which provide choices, but they need to be clearly illuminated and easily accessible.”   
 
[ENDS] 
 
For more information, please contact Vicky Masterson, One Family Communications Manager on 083 447 0645 / vmasterson@onefamily.ie  
 
1. HEA (2022) ‘National Access Plan 2022-2028′ 
 
The full research report can be accessed here: https://onefamily.ie/policy/research/ 

1. The research was conducted by a team of researchers at University College Cork, Dr Fiona Dukelow, Dr Margaret Scanlon and Edith Busteed, in collaboration with Dr Joe Whelan, Trinity College Dublin and in partnership with One Family. It was funded by Research Ireland under its New Foundations programme which supports research partnerships with community and voluntary organisations to conduct research that enhances services and their impact. The research was conducted in response to the inequities of the significant higher education attainment gap between lone parents and the general population. Through a survey across higher education institutions, interviews and diary keeping with lone parent students it documented the challenges and benefits lone parents encounter in accessing and participating in higher education. The policy implications for increasing the participation of lone parents in higher education to achieve equitable outcomes for lone parents and their families are also explored. 

2. One Family Ireland was founded in 1972 as Cherish and is Ireland’s national organisation for one-parent families and people sharing parenting or separating, offering support, information and services to all members of all one-parent families, to those sharing parenting, to those experiencing an unplanned pregnancy and to professionals working with one-parent families. Children are at the centre of One Family’s work and the organisation helps all the adults in their lives, including mums, dads, grandparents, step-parents, new partners and other siblings, offering a holistic model of specialist family support services. These services include the askonefamily national helpline on 0818 66 22 12, counselling, and provision of training courses for parents and for professionals. For further information, visit www.onefamily.ie. 

The Department of Education has today issued a review completed by academics at Maynooth University which sought to identify the barriers lone parents face in accessing higher level education. The review also examined the trends in participation and completion rates by lone parents in higher education and the range of measures that are currently available to support lone parents. One Family was consulted as part of this process as a representative stakeholder group.

The recommendations of the Report echo One Family’s recent Pre-Budget Submission. Lone parents need additional supports that recognise their parenting responsibilities in order to access educational opportunities.

A summary of the key findings from the report is below:

• Lone parents have attracted considerable policy attention in welfare and education and training, but much less specific attention has been paid to lone parents in higher education and seeking to widen access for these families.
• Key areas of social policy which are impacting on access to education include One Parent Family Payment (OFP) reform, housing, and childcare policy.
• Some lone parents are likely to experience considerable challenges in meeting the costs of attending college, paying rent, raising a family, working, and paying for childcare. These financial constraints are likely to influence decision-making around attending higher education either on a part-time or full-time basis.
• While the maintenance portion of SUSI education grants only provides a contribution towards the costs of participating in education, because lone parents have higher living costs than school leavers, the efficacy of the student grant is limited further.
• The complexity of the current system of supports was also highlighted in the report, including the inadequate dissemination of information, guidance and awareness raising to lone parents regarding the ‘bundles’ of supports that are offered by different government departments and agencies. Intreo case workers also require more training and awareness in this area.

Based on these findings the following recommendations have been made to Government to increase lone parents’ participation in education at third level:

• The maintenance grant contribution by SUSI must be reviewed and increased for all students, and particularly for lone parents.
• Lone parents who have transferred to BTEA were highlighted as the most economically vulnerable group among lone parent welfare recipients. The re-instatement of the student grant scheme – maintenance grant – for this group would create a more equitable, less complicated and targeted approach for supporting lone parents in higher education.
• Meeting the needs of lone parents should be part of the ethos of each Higher Education Institutions (HEI). This needs to be very explicitly stated by colleges and universities who have the responsibility of welcoming lone parents into its campus and giving them the tools and supports to succeed.
• Provide additional funding for lone parents either in the form of cash transfers or in the form of universal scholarships for lone parents within HEIs
• Measures introduced under the proposed Affordable Childcare Scheme should be articulated in a clear and meaningful way to lone parents, HEIs, lone parent representative groups and Intreo case workers. It is also important that all lone parents, irrespective of welfare entitlements, or if they are studying part-time or full-time have access to supported childcare.

The full report  ‘An Independent Review to Identify the Supports and Barriers for Lone Parents in Accessing Higher Education and to Examine Measures to Increase Participation’  is available here.

Following publication of the report, the Minister for Education and Skills, Richard Bruton, TD, and the Minister of State for Higher Education, Mary Mitchell O’Connor, TD, have announced €16.5m for new initiatives to widen access to higher education over the next three years, and declared a focus on helping lone parents to access higher level education.

The initiatives, according to the Department of Education and Skills, are:

• Funding bursaries worth €5,000 for 600 students coming from non-traditional backgrounds into college, with support for at least 120 socio-economically disadvantaged lone parents. This will be a €6m regional call over three years.
• Funding for support programmes to help 2,000 students, of which 200 will be lone parents, from non-traditional backgrounds enter college and successfully complete their course. This will be a €7.5m regional call over three years.
• A further €3m over three years in increased funding for the hardship supports to help students, with lone parents being prioritised.
• The groups being targeted include: entrants from under-represented socio-economic groups and communities; entrants with disabilities; mature entrants; members of the Irish Traveller community; students entering on the basis of a further education award; part-time flexible learners; as well as socio-economically disadvantaged lone parents and ethnic minorities.

While these initiatives are to be welcomed, we call on Government to take further action on the recommendations contained in this comprehensive Report and in our Pre-Budget Submission, and to ensure that appropriate budgetary decisions are made in the coming weeks to support these measures.