Parenting by day, studying by night: challenges faced by student-parents in the COVID-19 pandemic

ABSTRACT

In 2020, COVID-19-associated measures closed the majority of work places resulting in the transfer of education to online classrooms. Many parents were forced to work from home whilst simultaneously providing childcare or supervising home-school-learning activities. In common with many countries worldwide, the drive to widen participation in UK higher education has resulted in a more diverse student population, including mature students. Such students are more likely to have children than their younger peers who have followed the traditional route into higher education straight from school. However, the hegemonic discourse of neoliberalism that saturates higher education regards widening participation from a meritocratic perspective; potential and ability are key to participation regardless of social background, thus ignoring issues of power and inequality. Adopting a feminist intersectional and critical post-structural analysis, this article uses qualitative data from semi-structured interviews to unravel the experiences of student-parents during the pandemic. The findings suggest that the pandemic and associated restrictions served to magnify existing inequalities experienced by student-parents as well as creating significant additional barriers. Consequently, such results problematise the lack of institutional awareness of the unique circumstances faced by student-parents, made evident by the lack of data collected on the diversity of the student population.

KEYWORDS:

• Student-parents
• pandemic
• higher education
• children
• non-traditional students

Introduction

The COVID-19 pandemic caused extensive social and economic upheaval worldwide and education in the UK, as in most countries globally, experienced considerable disruption (World Bank, 2020). Childcare, schools, and universities closed with immediate effect and face-to-face learning was replaced by online teaching. One group particularly affected by the closure of educational and childcare establishments were student-parents with school age children or younger. There has been an increase in the diversity of the student population since the late 1990s when political commitment to achieve social justice expressed through widening participation programmes was prominently positioned in higher education (HE) policies in the UK (DfES, 2003) and around the world (Burke, 2013). Widening participation measures included specific commitments to increase the number of mature students in HE, students who are statistically more likely to have dependent children (ONS, 2023). Those students entering HE whilst raising a family, often come from disadvantaged backgrounds and may be affected by intersectional inequalities of class, gender, disability or race (Leathwood & O'Connell, 2003; Moreau, 2016; Raaper et al., 2022).

However, the hegemonic discourse of neoliberalism that saturates HE regards widening participation from a meritocratic perspective; potential and ability are key to participation regardless of social background, thus ignoring issues of power and inequality (Burke, 2013). HE institutions’ (HEI) policies and procedures are based on the traditional student (Burke, 2013; Moreau, 2016), who for this study’s purpose is regarded as “someone who is young, white, middle class and with the standard (A-level) entry qualifications” (Leathwood, 2006, p. 627). This disadvantages non-traditional students including student-parents, as their familial responsibilities and other intersectional disadvantages do not allow them to benefit from the institutional framework and guidelines in the way traditional students do (Moreau, 2016; Moreau & Kerner, 2015). The absence of the student-parent voice in informing processes and policies is evidenced by the lack of data collected on their numbers or needs at institutional or Higher Educational Statistics Agency (HESA) level (Moreau, 2016; Moreau & Kerner, 2015). The problem with this, as Burke (2020) points out, is that neoliberalist HEIs require evidence to support practice; if inequalities are not measured, they are not addressed. Therefore, although student-parents are encouraged to enter HE, they are not supported, evidenced by the higher non-completion rates of mature students (OFS, 2023).

In 2020, when the pandemic shook society, it did so in a way that affected age, gender, race and social class unequally (Belot et al., 2021). Research on how the pandemic-associated restrictions affected student-parents has garnered substantial international research interest (Cruse et al., 2020; Lin et al., 2022; Manze et al., 2021; Savage, 2023) but little research from a UK perspective, with the exception of Arowoshola (2020), Goldstone and Zhang (2022) and Nikiforidou and Holmes (2022).

In addressing the lacuna, this study employs a qualitative approach to allow the voices of student-parents to be heard, as exclusion from policy considerations routinely silences them. The data collected from semi-structured interviews is used to address the question: To what extent did the pandemic emphasise the importance of the student-parent voice informing HE policies and procedures? This will be addressed through the following objectives:

• To examine the pandemic’s impact on pre-existing challenges of being a student-parent.

• To explore any additional barriers created by the pandemic.

• To identify issues for further research

Opening a dialogue with student-parent allows the rich detail of meaning to be uncovered from their experiences, allowing an insight into the operation of power that creates exclusion and inequality in HE in a subtle, insidious and complicated manner. Therefore, I view the data collected with a critical post-structural lens, informed by feminist theory, which acknowledges the intersectional nature of inequality due to class, gender, race and disability.

The article is organised as follows; first, the context framing data collection is considered by drawing on previous research on the obstacles faced by student-parents in non-pandemic times. Depending predominantly on international research, the impact of the pandemic on pre-existing barriers is also reviewed. Second, the theoretical perspective and methodological approach adopted is discussed. Third, the findings, which emerged from the data, are scrutinised. Finally, the paper ends with a brief discussion and conclusion.

Student-parents in higher education

According to many (Bowl, 2001; Moreau, 2016), university structures accommodate the traditional student who is assumed to be white, middle-class and has moved seamlessly from school into HE, unencumbered by dependents. Any student not displaying these characteristics is non-traditional and therefore disadvantaged. Since 2005, the number of students enrolling in HE has grown substantially in the UK (19 per cent increase from 2005/06–2020/21; HESA, 2022). The HE population has also diversified (Hubble & Bolton, 2023) due to the widening access strategies (DfES, 2003; HEFCW, 2013) of previous political administrations, which included commitments to increase the number of mature students, students who are more likely to be responsible for children. It is difficult to quantify the number of students with children, because HESA does not require that HEIs collect that information and most universities, including the institution featured in this study, do not request information on students’ parenting status. Lambrechts (2020) noted a similar data deficiency for students with a refugee background. Thompson (2019) identified a lack of meaningful data to identify students’ needs as a key failing in the drive to widen participation. Estimates of the student-parent population can be obtained from indirect, often outdated sources. The most recently published Student Income and Expenditure Report is from 2014/15 and from this report it can be deduced that approximately 10 per cent of full-time students and 50 per cent of part-time students in Wales (Welsh Government, 2018) and 9 per cent and 36 per cent in England respectively, (English Government, 2018) have children. These figures suggest a substantial number of student-parents in HE. The problem with the lack of visibility of student-parents in universities is that they are given limited explicit policy consideration (Moreau & Kerner, 2015). Previous academic literature written pre-pandemic, grouped the barriers faced by student-parents as (i) the temporal requirements linked to being a student and parent; (ii) HE structures and policies supportive of the traditional student; (iii) financial difficulties; (iv) emotional toil.

Temporal requirements

Prior research on student-parents reveals the constant struggle to achieve a balance between satisfying the needs of family, studies and in many cases paid work (Brooks, 2012; Moreau & Kerner, 2015). The unequal gender responsibility for caring and domestic responsibilities witnessed in broader society is reflected in the female mature student population who are forced to reconcile their academic workload with demanding childcare and family responsibilities (Bowl, 2001, p. 200), compromising the time necessary to develop essential social and academic support networks. Many student mothers developed strategies for coping with their studies without neglecting family responsibilities, which included limiting their academic reading to the bare essentials and snatching whatever time they could to study, which often meant when their children were in school, day-care or sleeping (Bowl, 2001; Leathwood & O'Connell, 2003).

Institutional structures

The meritocratic approach adopted by HEIs as well as the invisibility of student-parents in data collected, means HEIs’ structures are insensitive to the very different demands on student-parents (Thompson, 2019). Institutions lack a supportive culture as evidenced by the paucity of childcare facilities, information sites or student-parent support staff, the late provision of timetables which are incompatible with planning childcare, scheduling of lectures and seminars at school-run times, no children on campus rules and sketchy provision of breast-feeding or baby changing facilities (Alsop et al., 2008; Brooks, 2012, 2013; Moreau, 2016).

Financial concerns

Concerns about financial matters are not unique to student-parents due to the changes in HE funding and the subsequent high levels of debt faced by most (Callender & Mason, 2017). However, student-parents’ financial burdens are heavier due to restrictions on their time available for paid work (Moreau & Kerner, 2015), which means they may work anti-social hours for low pay without paid sick leave (Bowl, 2001). In addition, student-parents face high childcare costs as the UK ranks second in the world in terms of childcare expense (World Economic Forum, 2019).

Emotional toil

Unsurprisingly, student-parents often find their HE experience negatively affects their mental health, (Gerrard & Roberts, 2006; Moreau & Kerner, 2015) causing sleep deprivation (Marandet & Wainwright, 2010). Emotional responses to education often depend upon class; middle-class students feel more at ease with regard to education than their working-class peers (Bowl, 2001; Leathwood & O'Connell, 2003; Raaper et al., 2022) who fear the amount of debt caused by their studies (Callender & Mason, 2017), increasing stress levels through worry and guilt (Brooks, 2012; Moreau & Kerner, 2015). In addition to class, gendered expectation can raise anxiety levels. Society at large promotes a strong normative construction of intensive mothering that encourages mothers to devote significant time and money to raising their children, which can engender feelings of guilt and create emotional pressures if student mothers elect to spend time studying (Brooks, 2015, p. 511).

Student-parents and the COVID-19 pandemic

When lockdown began, the multitude of pressures faced by student-parents intensified as a new set of challenges arose.

Temporal requirements

School and childcare closures meant student-parents’ extensive responsibilities extended to include home schooling and day care (Manze et al., 2021). International research indicates that the time commitment of having to provide increased childcare, support their children’s online schooling as well as coping with their own academic workload were overwhelming for student-parents (Lin et al., 2022; Manze et al., 2021). Temporal constraints caused student-parents to consider themselves as failing as parents and failing as students (Manze et al., 2021; Nikiforidou & Holmes, 2022), manifested through reduced peer connectivity and commitment to their studies (Raaper et al., 2022).

Institutional structures

Whilst some studies reported institutional support for student-parents in terms of assessment grading or submission dates (Arowoshola, 2020; Manze et al., 2021), these needed to be negotiated individually and depended on the support of an empathetic lecturer.

Financial concerns

Financial stress was exacerbated by increased home running costs as family members self-isolated (Savage, 2023). Economic inequality and disparity polarised access to the technological necessities that families required to connect during the pandemic (Lebow, 2020). Whilst technology enabled positive student engagement amongst some (Arowoshola, 2020), within the non-traditional cohort this was often not the case as lower socio-economic groups were disadvantaged by poor home-learning environments (Raaper et al., 2022).

Emotional toil

As precarious financial positions weakened and caregiving demands rose, mental health deteriorated resulting in a reduced retention rate of student-parents in HEIs (Cruse et al., 2020). Alternatively, other research showed that despite the increased stress levels, some student-parents derived benefits by spending more time with their children and acting as positive role models for their dependents (Nikiforidou & Holmes, 2022; Savage, 2023).

International research has provided extensive insight into the unique circumstances of student-parents during the pandemic, however UK-centred research has been less forthcoming. Whilst Arowoshola’s (2020) analysis of her own experience as a medical student-parent provides one insight, Goldstone and Zhang’s (2022) and Nikiforidou and Holmes' (2022) online questionnaire-based research provides a broad yet shallow picture; the in-depth interviews of this study provide richness and complexity of detail derived from the exploration of issues raised by a diverse sample of students, that is not possible with an online survey or auto-ethnographic account.

Conceptual framework

The study focuses on student-parents navigating an HE system dominated by the hegemony of global neoliberalism. Neoliberalism not only underpins the commercialisation of research and teaching activities, but also advocates a meritocratic approach to widening participation policies (Burke, 2013, 2020). Neoliberalism advocates that ability and hard work will allow an individual to benefit from HE, irrespective of their social background (Burke, 2013). However, this approach fails to acknowledge the status and power of privileged groups in HE and the deeply embedded pattern of inequality linked to intersectionality.

Many student-parents experience intersectional inequality. Costanza-Chock identifies intersectionality as a conceptual model developed by Black feminist thought to reframe “race, class, and gender as interlocking systems” (2018, p. 532), which individuals may experience together. As intersectionality creates an analytical framework to consider the way in which power, oppression, privilege and benefits affect the individual depending on their position (ibid), this is of immense value to the study of student-parents.

Feminist research contributes to the analysis of power by deconstructing how gender inequality is ingrained in society. It is appropriate to adopt a feminist perspective in this article, to facilitate the examination of the way in which the women of this study (23/27) are suppressed and disadvantaged by systems, structures, policies and processes that unfairly privilege others (Hirudayaraj & Shields, 2019). However, student mothers are not disadvantaged in terms of gender only; instead, they may face multiple forms of social categorisation, such as race, class, disability and parental status, which intersect and interact to shape the experiences and challenges they face. Therefore, I propose applying intersectional feminism as a theoretical framework (Costanza-Chock, 2018) to examine how multiple identities interact to influence the experience of women.

Adopting an interpretivist stance, the study objectives are addressed through qualitative interviewing to allow depth and complexity of individual experience to emerge (Byrne, 2012). A Foucauldian approach (Foucault, 1979) is taken to data analysis, in which language is not just regarded as a reflection of what it claims to represent. Instead, I focus on language as situated in societal relationships of power and unravel an individual’s use of language to construct meaning and subjectivity (Crotty, 1998). This aligns with a critical post-structural approach, which explores and critiques the systems and structures supporting social hierarchies and injustices. Such a post-structuralist stance makes visible the ways in which power and knowledge operate to privilege certain practices and forms of subjectivity and to examine their effects on individuals (Wright, 2006). Therefore, this study is informed by a feminist and critical post-structural perspective, which acknowledges intersectionality.

Methodology

The qualitative study is based on student-parent reflections of their experiences of pandemic-associated restrictive measures, which emerged from semi-structured interviews.

Ethics

Ethical guidelines were followed in line with the British Educational Research Association’s guidelines (2018) and approval was obtained from the institution’s ethics committee. Details of the study were posted on the HEI’s electronic noticeboards and interview participants, using self-nomination, were invited to take part. An information sheet and a consent form were provided to all participants and snowballing techniques were used to allow additional interviewees to contribute to the study (Seale, 2012a). In total, 23 cisgender female and four cisgender male participants contacted the researcher. Electronic data were stored on password-protected Cloud storage only accessible by the researcher. All data have been treated as confidential and anonymised, by removing any identifying names and places. Participants were informed of their right to withdraw from the study at any time without penalty.

Data analysis

A semi-structured interview approach was selected because the student-parents’ knowledge and experiences are meaningful properties (Mason, 2002). The approach allowed the exploration of personal and sensitive issues, for which other methods, such as focus groups were considered inappropriate (Tonkiss, 2012). Due to lockdown restrictions, I interviewed the students on Microsoft Teams, which were digitally recorded and automatically transcribed. Interview times were determined by the participants and most took place whilst their children were sleeping. The interviews lasted between 30 min to over an hour, depending on the participant and were loosely structured around questions suggested by existing literature and the ongoing global pandemic (Appendix B). Sufficient space was provided so that participants’ unique circumstances could be recounted.

My search for and interpretation of data patterns in the transcriptions resulted in the categorisation of themes and sub-themes, which I derived in an inductive and deductive manner using a modified grounded theory approach (Rivas, 2012; Ryan & Bernard, 2003). The data analysis examined and focussed on the ways in which respondents spoke about their experiences and the meanings attributed to their dual roles during the pandemic. The themes were grouped and compared on a Microsoft database iteratively, allowing rich insights into the participants’ experiences. Transcription, data collection and analysis were conducted in parallel with interviews continuing until saturation was reached and additional interviews did not lead to further themes being identified (Seale, 2012b).

I focused on the validity, confirmability and dependability of my research as a way of enhancing its rigour and coherence (Burr, 2015). To ensure the interview data are valid, a draft version of the article was returned to participants to allow any unintentional misrepresentations to be identified and modified, thus achieving participant validation (Torrance, 2012). To some extent, this mitigated the risk of bias emerging from my position as sole researcher in this study. Dependability and confirmability were developed through the depth of enquiry and richness of evidence generated from the interviews.

The study has its limitations; as a lecturer at the study HEI, I was conscious of the explicit and implicit power relationships involved. Therefore, to minimise the risk that students complied with expectations of providing a perceived, correct response (McGrath et al., 2019), open-ended questions were asked and ensuing responses were developed to explore the comments in more detail. Similarly, I was conscious of “engaged subjectivity” (Dhamoon, 2011, p. 239) due to my HE experiences. The automatic transcription of the interviews reduced the impact of my flawed recollection of the participants’ words, although my interpretation of the themes and sub-themes reflect my personal judgement (Ryan & Bernard, 2003). However, the intention is not to generalise from the interviews but to provide an insight into the experiences of student-parents (Rivas, 2012), and multiple quotes are presented to support the themes analysed.

The participants’ childcare responsibilities and summary characteristics are shown below (Tables 1 and 2; Appendix A).

Table 1. Participants' Gender and Level of Study.

Gender, Level of Study	Female (number)	Male (number)
Undergraduate	14	3
Postgraduate	9	1

Table 2. Participants' Summary Characteristics.

Demographic Characteristics	Number
Ethnic minority	10
Living on own with child/ren	8
Disability (student/child)	8

In the following sections, the key findings from the data are presented and each theme is explored using multiple direct quotations so that individual voices may be heard.

Findings

Time-related conflicting demands

Gendered nature of care

Pre-pandemic, student mothers with partners still assumed responsibility for almost all the childcare (Brooks, 2013). This was exacerbated during the pandemic, when the new role of helping their children with schoolwork affected women more than men (Adisa et al., 2021). The daily balancing act was intensified and extended, as student-parents accommodated on-line schooling (school age) or childcare (pre-school) alongside their own academic commitments and domestic responsibilities. After spending the day supervising the on-line schooling of her two children, this student mother noted,

I put everyone into bed. My shift started from 9pm to 2 in the morning so I was just dealing with my own studies. (UG11)

As Manze et al.’s (2021) study found, student-parents were clear that they had to make a choice,

T [child] does need pushing so it was quite often me having to choose between my studies and his studies (UG15)

Disability was a common thread in student-parent accounts, experienced either by themselves or their children. This intensified the burden as one mother, living on her own with her child makes evident when she describes the increase in her workload from helping her child (with special needs) with on-line education,

I felt like I just added six hours onto my day that I just didn't have room to fit in, so I had to do that, then catch up on my lessons (UG12)

Those with multiple children, such as the following student mother, faced an even more daunting task,

between 9:00–12:00 … I was studying with P and I was helping him, I was like helping him with his homework stuff … then 12–3 I was helping R in that time (UG11)

During the pandemic, schools set on-line work for children to complete; student-parents found these expectations overwhelming (Nikiforidou & Holmes, 2022, p. 8) as this student mother living on her own with four children, illustrates,

[the children can] do one hour [each] today and I even rung the school, I said I cannot [do all you are asking the children to complete], I got four [children] at home (UG7)

Home schooling also required access to unfamiliar technology, which varied according to school. Therefore, if the student-parent had children in more than one school, multiple on-line platforms had to be learnt which took time, as this student mother observed,

Just learning [different systems] I've run  … . Google Docs and then my other daughter was on Teams … and I could not figure it out. You would have three schools ringing you, they haven’t done this, they haven’t logged on (UG7)

Snatching time to study and developing strategies for coping with their academic workload without neglecting family responsibilities was a challenge for women pre-pandemic (Bowl, 2001) and this continued during the pandemic as Cruse et al. (2020) highlighted. Pre-pandemic, student mothers relied upon a variety of childcare arrangements, including reciprocal care provided between friends and neighbours (Brooks, 2013). This was also found to be the case with a student mother of two,

before the pandemic we could never really meet as a group on campus outside of our uni days because we all either work or have kids … [it] was actually easier to meet [at home] because the kids can put a programme on for [themselves for] half an hour and [the children will] leave you be. (UG10)

However, that informal support was lost due to pandemic restrictions, although the same student mother found a novel way to provide mutual moral support,

So through the pandemic now it’s on Teams  … . I just done one this morning with two girls from uni, we just sort of sit with the cameras off and we'll be doing work, but we're chatting in the background (UG10)

Interestingly, the gender dynamic in childcare was reversed in some intersectional contexts. Two student fathers with refugee backgrounds were more competent in spoken and written English than their wives and so almost full responsibility for on-line schooling fell on them. One student father of three children, acknowledged the burden “so it is 100% you with education” (UG8) and the consequences for his own study,

I wasn't you know, like allocated even [a] single minute to do my own stuff like academic session (UG8).

These comments were similar to those made by student mothers.

Domestic responsibilities

Lockdown led to an increased domestic workload, which women generally tended to bear disproportionately (Adisa et al., 2021), increasing demands on their time. One student mother of two, whose husband didn’t work, still did 60 per cent of home schooling and 30 per cent of domestic responsibilities, leaving her no option but to “do all my things in the night while [the children are] sleeping” (PG2). Almost a third (8/27) of the student-parents, of whom the majority (7/8) were female, lived alone with their children and received no help with domestic or caring responsibilities.

Over a quarter of participants (8/27) acknowledged that they limited their academic studies to when the rest of the household were asleep. Care and domestic work were performed during the day and studying overnight, as this mother of two children illustrates;

I had to do my other stuff for the home.  … My husband, he arrived at 6:30pm then I had to like you know, give him food, tea and maybe sit with him. (UG11)

Having both parents at home did disrupt the gendered nature of care in some instances as it meant that fathers were able to have more family-time and contribute more to domestic duties (Craig & Churchill, 2021; Savage, 2023). This was the case with one student father in the study, who found that his daily presence at home made him more aware of the domestic burden,

instead of just being a man sitting there, relax you know, taking time and just working [outside of the home]. Now it’s you know like washing dishes, cooking … (UG8)

Despite increased help from male partners generally, the majority of the burden was still shouldered by women (Andrew et al., 2020). Whilst men’s heightened awareness of the domestic load induced some change in behaviour, Craig and Churchill’s (2021) study considered it unlikely that this change would endure post pandemic.

Socio-economic impact

Socio-economic position worsened time constraints due to student-parents’ limited ability to purchase home learning resources (Andrew et al., 2020). This is exemplified by a student father, who queued behind his children as the family shared household technology,

I don't have money to buy a laptop. I bought [one] for my kids and I  … wait for my kids to finish their homework and I take the computer (UG6).

Whilst many student-parents found it difficult to balance their studies pre-pandemic with their children in school, during the pandemic, they acknowledged the negative impact on their studies of having their children at home constantly,

The full concentration is not there … so that your attention is divided. You know when they go to school you set your target, you set your timing … [but] you can't do that because they're always around you. (PG2)

Of course, the pressure of balancing work commitments with children’s online schooling was a feature for many families in the pandemic, but student-parents who were part-time key workers also had to accommodate study time. One student mother also worked night shifts in an elderly persons’ care home. On her days off, she had to make three early morning visits to the care home to complete a COVID-19 test before returning to ensure she and her children were on-line by 9am. As well as dealing with the stresses of caring for extremely vulnerable people, the student mother with two children had to cope with a lack of sleep,

when I was working a night shift the next day I'm [usually] coming home to sleep … then with the [on-line school] learning … sometimes I would stay awake because obviously I need to make sure that they [children] were doing their work (UG17)

Therefore, during the pandemic this student mother’s limited study time was squeezed even further due to her paid work and her inability to adopt the pre-pandemic strategies of fitting academic work around school (Moreau & Kerner, 2015). Instead, she compromised her sleep, personal time and studies to prioritise her children’s education.

HE structures

The argument that HEIs ignore the needs of the diverse student body, concentrating on traditional students who have no dependents, is supported by the following incident. During the first lockdown, emergency measures were introduced across the HE sector to ensure all students’ academic results were not negatively impacted by the COVID pandemic. However, this support was withdrawn after the first lockdown, which student-parents felt ignored the needs of those whose children were still at home with on-line schooling due to the child or teacher testing positive for COVID-19, as this mother of four children, some with disabilities explains,

we had a non-detriment policy on the first lock down that they didn't give us on the second lock down and this is where … my blood boils and I was just like “what has changed from last lockdown?” I said, we are [still] home schooling, now it's even worse (UG7)

Financial impacts

Paid employment

The pandemic had an unequal impact on women, individuals from a low socioeconomic background and young migrants and refugees, typically those engaged in precarious or non-standard forms of work (Gardiner & Slaughter, 2020). Whereas higher earners were more likely to be able to work from home, lower earners were unable to leave their children unattended and therefore could not work. Students in the study often worked in precarious roles to accommodate their studies and childcare. One participant was pregnant when the pandemic broke out and followed government medical advice to isolate because of the pregnancy-associated risk. As she was employed on a zero hours contract, she immediately lost that income,

I stopped [work] as soon as the pandemic hit … I had to stop because I had to isolate (UG9)

Her financial situation was exacerbated, as despite all childcare closing, the private nursery used for her other child still required payment for fees to reserve the nursery space in anticipation of it reopening. Other students, including this mother of two, involved in casual employment also had to turn down work,

when the agency called me asking can you maybe attend to that work, I said I am so sorry I've got my children at home (UG11)

When lockdown enforced the closure of all types of childcare external to the home, women tended to assume its responsibility, which inevitably reduced their ability to partake in paid employment (Power, 2020). This resulted in a loss of income, compounded by an increase in food and utility bills due to families spending more time at home; “I think my electric went up to £135 a month [from £80]” (UG7).

Learning environment

Financial difficulties related to study were compounded by digital poverty as some student-parents, prior to the pandemic, relied on the institution’s printers and computers and during lockdown they had to either borrow university equipment or buy their own. As such, the removal of campus resources reduced social and spatial structures that perhaps acted as equalisers in terms of their study environment (Raaper et al., 2022). Research on the effectiveness of children’s home learning found it to be positively associated with the quality of the environment; a dedicated study area with a smart device and adequate WIFI being directly linked to productive learning (Andrew et al., 2020). My study found that financial constraints similarly impaired the home-learning environment for student-parents, adversely impacting their studies. Printing costs were particularly exorbitant as this student mother with visual impairment (which necessitated the printing out of university work) explained; “I've spent hundreds of pounds on ink in lockdown” (UG4).

Whilst the university attempted to accommodate its disabled students by providing what computers they had, inadequate equipment was available,

it wasn't a very good computer to be honest, so I bought myself a new one because the computer they gave me, the software and the stuff they put on it … crashed the computer all the time. (UG4)

As a result, many of the student-parents interviewed talked about additional “financial difficulty” and “debt”. One student father of four explained how he had to use his student grant to buy his children technology to be able to complete their on-line schooling “I spend all my student finance to buy [a] laptop” (UG6).

Economic hardship often results from intersectional disadvantage, particularly for people from ethnic minority backgrounds, who tended to be engaged in poorly paid work and often experienced inadequate housing conditions (Fiske et al., 2022). Similar to Savage’s (2023) findings about ethnic minority student-parents in Australia and Lambrecht’s (2020) work on refugees, I found student-parents with a refugee background faced increased financial hardship, often living in cramped accommodation, which reduced the quality of their study environment. This student father with a refugee background illustrates the point;

We are five; we just live in two rooms, two bedrooms. I have to just sit in my car most time [to study] (UG8)

Emotional toil

Mental Health

In common with research performed in other countries (Dayne et al., 2022), almost every interviewee commented upon the negative impact of the pandemic on their mental health. Of the undergraduates interviewed, the majority (11/17) either took advantage of the delayed submission date offered by the institution, withdrew from postgraduate programmes they had applied for whilst still at undergraduate level or applied to defer exams, which delayed their graduation. Almost all of the postgraduate students were also working and the majority (7/10) suspended their studies to reflect their increased workload caused by online schooling. The gendered impact of the negative consequences of lockdown on the mental health and well-being of women of childbearing age is revealed by a growing body of work (Banks & Xu, 2020) and was echoed in the study, as this disabled student mother of two explains,

..the first few weeks I struggled … sectioning myself off from being mum that has to cook and clean look after the kids, student and then teacher [for online schooling] (UG13)

The negative emotional impact is understandable, given the desperate strategies used to cope with the gendered nature of online schooling and the domestic burden whilst studying, as this student mother explains;

I've taken all my holiday for the year before the summer holidays (UG4)

This left her without annual leave for the balance of the year.

Guilt

Nikiforidou and Holmes (2022, p. 8) found that student-parents in their survey considered they had shown “bad parenting” skills, because they felt they did not give their children adequate attention or were stressed and consequently irritable with them. In my study, student-parents similarly felt that they were not performing well in work or parenting, as expressed by this student mother of one,

I felt very guilty that I wasn't doing the best I could do in my work and felt guilty I wasn't doing enough for my PhD. I felt guilty that I wasn't doing enough as a mum and trying to home school (PG3)

In the minority were those student mothers who experienced no guilt as they felt their children’s pride and acting as a good role model was sufficient (Wainwright & Marandet, 2010), as this mother of two children explains;

E [child], it makes him very like proud … he likes to talk that I'm in school and [he says] that's what I do too. I wouldn't say I felt guilty about the [studying] (UG2)

Regrets

Resonating with previous studies, (Arowoshola, 2020), most student-parents found it difficult to cope with the knowledge that their academic results reflected the situation they had been thrust in by the pandemic rather than their abilities, as this pregnant mother of two explains;

I feel like I haven't done as well as I should have done this year … and that that was really hard to deal with mentally for a long time (UG9)

Some student-parents had relished the opportunity to attend HE as a chance to enhance their knowledge, yet the restricted university support systems and the lack of interaction with their peers negatively impacted their experience, feelings reflected in other research (Nikiforidou & Holmes, 2022). This student mother of two captures the sentiment;

I really, really enjoyed … [the] library. I'm sitting there, I'm looking [at] these books just in front of me …  … You know all books collections in front [of me]. And then I'm writing down, making my articles, making my notes … it was [a] fantastic feeling. I just missed it (UG16)

Beneficial

However, some of those interviewed did highlight benefits associated with the lockdown, especially in terms of extended quality time with their family, reflected in other studies (Hoskins et al., 2023). Pre-pandemic, one student mother’s child required additional educational support (SENCO) as he had fallen behind on his studies due to a series of health problems and could not receive this support during lockdown. However, due to his mother’s tuition, the child caught up with his peers and,

He actually doesn't see the SENCO anymore since COVID because I've helped him (UG4)

In addition, although many disliked the on-line world that had been thrust upon them, one student mother realised that without it, she would not have been able to attend her placement opportunity,

So the positives for me were … placement. Now I'm in a placement in England. Had we not been in a pandemic I wouldn’t have had the opportunity I've had (UG10).

Unexpectedly, this student mother of two found the constraints imposed by her gender and socio-economic position to be reduced by the online context.

Discussion and conclusion

Discussion

The findings offer crucial insights into the multitude of challenges and experiences faced by student-parents during the COVID-19 pandemic. They also reveal the within-group differences that exist in the student-parent cohort; individuals often experience multiple forms of marginalisation due to the “intersecting oppressions” (Collins, 2002, p. 23; Costanza-Chock, 2018) of gender, class, race and disability.

Time-related demands endured by all student-parents, were exacerbated by the presence of intersecting characteristics causing some to face multiple disadvantages. For example, whilst student mothers experienced gendered expectations regarding caring and home-schooling responsibilities, those mothers with a physical disability or with a refugee background also found their attempts to overcome poor home learning environments caused by their race or disability, to be thwarted.

During the pandemic, HE structures disadvantaged all student-parents but for mothers dealing with gendered expectations regarding childcare, the impact was even more detrimental when the academic performance safety net was removed despite their children still having online schooling. Race rather than gender was a marginalising factor for those student fathers with a refugee background when their better English language skills meant they assumed household responsibility for their children’s on-line schooling and therefore suffered when the HEI removed the academic safety net.

The adverse financial impact on student-parents was universally significant, yet gender meant that social expectations regarding caring responsibilities reduced student mothers’ ability to take on paid work, especially if due to class, the nature of their paid work was outside of the home. Student fathers with a refugee background did not face gender barriers but experienced marginalisation due to race and class which negatively impacted their home-learning environment due to the loss of precarious jobs, significantly reducing income at a time when living costs were increasing.

The emotional toil of being a student-parent during the pandemic was fundamental, however the negative consequences were gendered with the most adverse connotations associated with women of childbearing age, perhaps due to the strong normative construction of intensive mothering that engenders feelings of guilt and emotional pressures for student mothers.

These findings reveal that the socially constructed identities of race, class, disability and gender often meld in the student-parent cohort resulting in complex inequality. The implication for HE policy makers is evident; inclusive HE policies are necessary to recognise the intersecting identities that characterise a non-homogenous student population. HE policy should incorporate targeted support mechanisms that address the unique challenges faced by different subgroups within the student-parent population.

Conclusion

Returning to the study objectives; the findings indicate that the pre-existing tensions of being a parent studying at an HEI, increased during the pandemic. In addition to the intersectional challenges identified above, both male and female student-parents reported deterioration in the quality of the interactions with their children. This engendered feelings of guilt, impairing their mental health and only a minority of participants viewed the enforced online context positively.

The second objective explored whether the pandemic created additional barriers for student-parents and my study found this to be the case. Institutional assumptions that ability and effort would supersede intersectional disadvantage meant that no structures were in place to identify the unique circumstances student-parents faced and academic safety nets were withdrawn despite some schoolchildren still having online schooling from home.

Addressing the final objective, future research could consider the HEIs’ discourse on international students who are assumed to be independent and unencumbered. Instead, international students may also be parents who face the challenges of UK-based student-parents as well as the cultural adjustments required from both them and their family.

Returning to the research question; crises starkly expose longstanding and systemic social problems. Similarly, the pandemic revealed the extreme disadvantages experienced by student-parents when widening participation policies do not take into account power and inequality inherent in HE structures. Neoliberalism privileges that which can be measured and whilst data collection on student-parent numbers on its own will not alleviate any of the issues, it will give student-parents a voice, drawing attention to their unique needs and circumstances after decades of being silenced and marginalised in HE.

Declarations

Ethical approval was granted by Cardiff School of Management, Cardiff Metropolitan University, 2020D00017.

The names of participants have been anonymised.

The data that support the findings of this study are available on request from the author.

Acknowledgements

I would like to thank the student-parent who gave up their time to be interviewed. I am also very grateful to Hazel Conley, of the University of the West of England and Xiaoni Ren, of Cardiff Metropolitan University, who both provided extremely useful comments on previous versions of this article.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Appendix A

Table

Undergraduate	Ethnic minority	Partner	Disability (student/child)	Number dependents	Gender
UG1	Yes	Yes	No	1	F
UG2	No	No	No	2	F
UG3	No	No	No	1	F
UG4	No	No	Yes	1	F
UG5	No	No	Yes	2	M
UG6	Yes	Yes	No	4	M
UG7	No	No	Yes	4	F
UG8	Yes	Yes	No	3	M
UG9	No	Yes	No	3	F
UG10	No	Yes	No	2	F
UG11	Yes	Yes	Yes	2	F
UG12	Yes	No	Yes	1	F
UG13	No	Yes	Yes	2	F
UG14	Yes	No	No	1	F
UG15	Yes	No	No	1	F
UG16	Yes	Yes	No	2	F
UG17	No	Yes	No	2	F
Postgraduate	Ethnic minority	Partner	Disability (student/child)	Number dependents	Gender
PG1	No	Yes	No	2	F
PG2	Yes	Yes	No	2	F
PG3	No	Yes	No	1	F
PG4	Yes	Yes	No	2	F
PG5	No	Yes	Yes	2	F
PG6	No	Yes	No	2	F
PG7	No	Yes	Yes	2	M
PG8	No	Yes	No	2	F
PG9	No	Yes	No	1	F
PG10	No	Yes	No	2	F

Appendix B

Table

Interview Questions:
1. Name, age, identity, degree course, number and age of children
2. Why did you decide to start/resume your studies?
3. What job did you do before you became a student, can you outline some of the responsibilities entailed?
4. Can you outline how the pandemic has impacted you and your family? (e.g. job/income, home costs, emotional impact, academic implications)
5. Can you describe your role in caring for/education of your children – pre and post pandemic?
6. Do your studies affect the time you spend with your children and if so what are your feelings about this?
7. Can you outline the impact that home-schooling had on you, your family and your studies?
8. Have you had to postpone/delay academic work?
9. What are your thoughts on how the university helped students during the pandemic?
10. Can you discuss how you dealt with home schooling during lockdown and how this impacted your studies? (space, IT issues, library closure)
11. Have your children been part of a bubble forced to self-isolate even when school returned?
12. Are there any other issues that you feel impacted your studies during the pandemic?
13. Are there any other comments you would like to add?
14. Are there any other student-parents you believe would be happy to contact me about contributing to the research?