PhD students ‘spending entire stipends on childcare’

A lack of government support has left parents who study postgraduate degrees “falling between the cracks”, with some facing childcare costs equivalent to their monthly stipends, a report warns.

Tens, if not hundreds, of thousands of students pursuing master’s degrees or PhDs in the UK face large bills for childcare because they are ineligible for grants that are available to full-time undergraduates, the Higher Education Policy Institute (Hepi) and GW4, an alliance of the universities of Bath, Bristol, Cardiff and Exeter, say in a report published on 18 July.

Most such students also do not qualify for the childcare benefits available to workers, and the paper estimates that PhD students face national average childcare costs of £14,000 a year for a child under two as a result, while a typical PhD stipend is worth between £15,000 and £19,000 a year.

Figures from universities that collect data on students with childcare responsibilities suggest that about 15 per cent of postgraduates are parents. The report says this means that nationally as many as 12,000 postgraduate researchers and 129,000 postgraduate taught students could benefit from increased support.

Such costs “disincentivise” parents from pursuing postgraduate qualifications and create “barriers” to diversity, with women and those from poorer backgrounds more likely to be put off, the report says.

Kate Bowen-Viner, a part-time PhD student at the University of Bristol, had a child after starting her studies. She told Times Higher Education that while she receives a monthly stipend of £775.92, her son’s childcare costs equate to roughly £804 a month.

Ms Bowen-Viner, a former civil servant who is undertaking a PhD in social policy, said the “complexity of understanding the system is draining”. The lack of clarity around it meant that she and her partner discovered that she would be ineligible for tax-free childcare only after her son’s birth, she said.

“If I had known that this is what it would be like, I wouldn’t have done a PhD,” said Ms Bowen-Viner, a member of the campaign group PGR Parents and Carers.

Melissa Barlow, a PhD student at the University of Exeter, said the childcare costs for her two children – which amounted to about £17,000 a year, compared with her annual stipend of £16,000 – had forced her to take out loans and had taken a toll on her ability to study.

“It was just incredibly stressful and affected my concentration because I was just always thinking, ‘Am I ever going to get to the end of this? Will I have to eventually quit?’”

Hepi and GW4 called on the government to extend undergraduate childcare grants to postgraduates. The grants provide support towards childcare costs for those with a household income below £19,795.

juliette.rowsell@timeshighereducation.com