Understanding & Supporting Carer Experiences.
“The impact of caring for a sibling is a whole different world...it’s always with you”
– Student Interviewee
A carer provides ongoing, unpaid help to someone who needs it because of a disability, long-term or life-limiting illness, mental illness, dementia or ageing.
The ‘Carers, We See You’ project aimed to better understand the everyday experiences and challenges faced by UTS student carers, and develop ways that the university could better support student carers to achieve a better balance in their life as both a student and carer.
Key insights
Student carers feeling like they did not have enough support and knowledge of how to navigate University services in times of crisis.
The need for less repetition of paperwork for exemptions and special considerations.
The need for greater awareness and data of the student carer population at the university.
The need to better connect with other carers within the University.
Recognising the positive skills and attributes that student carers possess to be able to carry out this crucial caring support on top of their own lives.
The need to better support Academic Liaison staff to deal with emotionally and charged situations.
“My focus isn’t great when I have to juggle all the responsibilities between student and carer”
– Student Interviewee
We created a set of principles that could underpin and influence the character of any university interventions, uncovered a number of insights on the student carer/staff population, and prompted a series of suggestions for the university to consider implementing to better support student carers, and the staff tasked with supporting them.
Change across the system.
Products: such as a carers card and a welcome pack would help student carers’ understanding of the resources and services available to them within the University and reduce repetition of paperwork for exemptions.
People: including the development of a supportive carers network, a carer’s retreat, and more face-to- face empathetic interaction with the University.
Process: includes the establishment of a student carer registration and data collection process at enrolment for greater support and knowledge of the carer community, clearer progress/feedback loops when interfacing with the system, and a communications plan to build on stories and visibility of student carers amongst the UTS community.
Policy: includes better involving carers in the co-development of university policy, as well as creating procedural flowcharts in language accessible to students.
Evaluating Carer Experiences.
We used a human-centred design approach to understand the experiences of carers across various carer programs.
