Hi fellow students!
I hope you are well and enjoying your studies, and have managed to spend some time outside in the pleasant weather.
National Carers Week
National Carers Week is taking place from Monday, 8 June to Sunday, 14 June, and we are marking it at Open SU. The theme for 2026 is 'Building Carer Friendly Communities', and as such, we are holding a special on Tuesday, 9 June. We have also published a Carer Support Hub on our website.
Carers at the OU
Firstly, when thinking about carers, let us look at the definition.
A carer is defined as anyone, including both children and adults, who looks after a family member, partner, or friend who requires assistance due to illness, frailty, disability, mental health issues, or addiction, and cannot manage without their support. The care provided by these individuals is unpaid.
Within further education in general, there are no definitive figures on students studying with carer responsibilities, although it is thought that between 3 and 6% of students have these responsibilities. In 2024, UCAS reported that 15,000 young carers had applied for university places.
The number of carers registered at The Open University is far higher than the UCAS numbers. In 2024, the OU had 23,565 carers registered at the start of the academic year, which is 12.79% of all OU students.
Carer Support Hub
Carloyn Johnson from the Students' Carers Team has therefore created a Carers Support Hub, which is hosted on our website. It has many useful hints and tips for our student carers.
Visit our Carer Support Hub
Carers events
To further support our student carers, the Student Carers Network, led by Carolyn Johnson and Nichola Kentzer in association with Open SU, will be starting regular support sessions, which will be held monthly over the coming academic year.
The first one will be held on Tuesday, 9 June. It's a celebration event to mark Carers Week and our wonderful student carers. We do hope you can join us. Details are in the link below.
Come to our Carers Celebration Event
Please do reach out to me at for any further information.
Best wishes,
Charon Gates
WELS Faculty Rep