Billy Davis is the Public Affairs Lead for the GW4 Alliance, which brings together four of the most research-intensive and innovative universities in the UK (Bath, Bristol, Cardiff, and Exeter). Our universities employ over 13,000 academic staff and educate over 33,000 postgraduate and 82,000 undergraduate students.
Our institutions host over 40 externally funded Doctoral Training Centres and Partnerships and are home to over 7,000 doctoral researchers. Of these training programmes, 14 are GW4 entities. GW4 is committed to creating optimal research and educational environments that enable our postgraduate researchers to push forward the boundaries of knowledge and innovation. GW4 was first approached in 2023 by postgraduate students who shared the impact of the lack of childcare subsidies on their physical, mental and economic well-being and sought support in raising the issue nationally. This led to the creation of GW4’s ongoing childcare campaign.
The incoming Labour government has come to power promising a “decade of national renewal” and driving economic growth. It has been widely recognised that boosting innovation, and supporting universities as drivers of regional economies, is often one of the most effective ways to promote economic growth.
However, current polices are creating structural barriers, particularly for women and those from lower-income communities, which are preventing them from undertaking postgraduate studies. This has implications for their career progression, preventing them from reskilling for the innovative jobs our future economy will need, and affects the wider diversity of our future research workforce.
Students studying for Masters and PhDs are ineligible for Childcare Grants, which are in place for full-time undergraduates to help with childcare costs for children under 15 years old if household income is below £19,795 (for one child). They are also ineligible for the Parents’ Learning Allowance, which provides eligible full-time undergraduate students with additional funding for those with children that can be used for everyday costs of study, such as books, study materials, and travel. Additionally, postgraduates are also ineligible for the childcare benefits available to workers, unless they are in substantial paid employment in addition to their studies.
For most parents, combining postgraduate study, substantial outside work, and childcare responsibilities is incompatible. Most PhD programmes expect their postgraduate students to study full-time and some do not allow regular outside work. In exchange, PhD students are usually offered a stipend (a fixed sum of money) to cover the cost of housing and other living expenses. However, with a typical stipend for a PhD student between £15,000 to £19,000 per year and the average cost of a full-time childcare place for an under 2-year-old over £14,000 a year, stipends do not provide enough money to cover living and childcare costs.
GW4 (alliance of Bath, Bristol, Cardiff and Exeter universities), is concerned that this lack of childcare support disincentivises parents from pursuing postgraduate qualifications. This lack of provision also limits the equality and diversity of the higher education and high-skilled workforce, despite growing evidence that more diverse workplaces, particularly in Research and Development sectors, are more innovative.
Since April 2023, GW4 have been campaigning to raise awareness of this gap in support, and calling on government to support postgraduates with childcare costs. As part of this campaign, GW4 recently published a policy note with the Higher Education Policy Institute (HEPI) entitled Who cares? How postgraduate parents fall through the gap for government childcare grants, and how to fix it. The report shines a light on the unacknowledged gap in childcare support for postgraduate students, in direct contrast to the support and provisions available for undergraduate students and workers.
Our report makes three recommendations to government on how to help address this challenge:
Firstly, we call on government to expand the eligibility of undergraduate Childcare Grants to include home taught and research postgraduates. This initial step would help to remove barriers for economically disadvantaged parents wishing to undertake postgraduate studies.
Given their current responsibilities for childcare and the administration of undergraduate our second recommendation proposes that the government should bring responsibility for postgraduate students’ childcare provision fully within the remit of the Department for Education. However, any future Whitehall restructuring should take a more holistic view towards the postgraduate experience, reducing the likelihood of issues such as childcare provision falling between the cracks in Ministers’ overlapping portfolio briefs in the future.
Finally, the Higher Education Statistics Agency should work with universities to improve data collection on postgraduate students with childcare responsibilities. This would allow universities, policymakers and other interested stakeholders to properly understand the size of the affected cohort, which would allow for a more informed and costed debate.
Looking at existing postgraduate childcare support in England, while postgraduates on certain healthcare courses may be eligible for support from the NHS Learning Support Fund, and postgraduates in receipt of a Social Work Bursary may be eligible for the Childcare Allowance and Parents’ Learning Allowance elements of the NHS bursary, there are no comparable grants for most other postgraduate students. Most have access to interest-bearing loans which can be used as required, including to help pay for childcare costs, and will be eligible for 15 hours of support for 3-and-4-year-olds.
The provision of postgraduate childcare support varies across the Devolved nations. Students in Northern Ireland operate under a similar regulatory regime to England. However, postgraduate students in Scotland are in receipt of a more generous childcare grant than their English counterparts, and postgraduates in Wales are in receipt of 30 free hours of childcare. While Barnett formula differentials mean the devolved nations will have more funding per head than England, these comparisons illustrate potential alternatives for childcare support in England.
Splitting responsibility for postgraduates between Ministers in the Department for Education and the Department for Science Innovation & Technology has led to this issue falling through the cracks, with neither department having overall responsibility for this issue.
We found that a lack of consistent data collection is hindering our ability to fully understand the size of the cohort that would benefit from the extension. After questioning GW4 institutions, Midlands Innovation institutions and partners across the South West, the majority reported that they did not hold data on childcare responsibilities for postgraduate students.
The University of Bath, along with the University of Bristol, University of Birmingham are three exceptions. For the University of Bath, 14 per cent of the 875 postgraduate researchers (PGRs) and 8 per cent of the 2,305 postgraduate taught (PGTs) students are parents and would benefit from improved support.
A similar landscape emerges at the University of Bristol, with 15 per cent of the 1,460 PGRs and 13 per cent of the 2,530 PGTs potentially benefitting. However, the figures increase substantially at the University of Birmingham, as 18 per cent of their 1,815 PGRs and 34 per cent of their 6,180 PGTs would benefit.
If we assume these figures are comparable to national percentages, then extending childcare support could directly impact up to 9,400 PGRs and 30,000 PGTs at the lowest or up to 12,000 PGRs and 129,000 PGTs at the highest estimate. However, without uniform data collection, this can only be viewed as something of a crude estimate.
At the heart of the lack of childcare support for postgraduate students are real people. GW4 spoke to postgrads from across our network, such as Grace Morris, a University of Bath Architecture and Civil Engineering PhD student. Interviewees stressed the importance of undertaking postgraduate studies not only for themselves but also for the benefit of wider society, including one student who is pursuing a career in cancer research. However, they all struggled with paying childcare fees while studying, with the stipends they received being insufficient to cover their childcare costs.
As the average postgraduate researcher is almost 30-years-old many are likely to be considering a family. The real cost of continuing their education causes them to weigh this up with the chance to contribute to the UK’s position as a global science and innovation superpower.
We acknowledge that extending undergraduate childcare schemes to include postgraduates will not be a silver bullet for everyone undertaking postgraduate studies. However, supporting those who already face the highest barriers to undertaking postgraduate studies, would be a welcome first step in ensuring parity in childcare support for postgraduate researchers with other groups.
Ultimately, GW4 asks government to explore the extension of 30 free hours childcare to postgraduate researchers. Our recommendations – both for the extension of undergrad schemes to postgraduates, and 30 free hours - chime with those made by others in the sector, such as the Russell Group Students’ Union, which made similar calls in their 2024 Student Manifesto.
Making the case will not be easy, particularly with Education Secretary Bridgette Philipson recently stating that there are “no plans” to increase Higher Education funding in England, and the continuation of postgraduate schemes potentially under review in Wales. However, if Labour is to truly deliver on its Mission to Break Down Barriers to Opportunity, or to fully realise the potential of technologies to deliver on Driving Economic Growth, making Britain a Green Energy Superpower, making the NHS “Fit For The Future” or supporting police to Take Back Our Streets, then ensuring that potential postgraduate researchers never need to choose between their studies or starting a family must be at the heart of those considerations to ensure we have a diverse and skilled future knowledge economy talent pool.
As part of our next steps, we will be looking to build on our library of case studies, working with the sector to make our policy recommendations a reality, and ensure that our report is fed into policy debates through MP and Ministerial engagements, and through consultation responses. If you would like to get involved in our work, please contact me.
In the meantime, if you would like to share our report on social media, please do so using the hashtag #WhoCaresGW4ChildcareCampaign, or show your support with the hashtag #ICareGW4ChildcareCampaign.
For more information, visit our website here.
All articles posted on this blog give the views of the author(s), and not the position of the IPR, nor of the University of Bath.
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