Lone Parents' Experiences as Higher Education Students: Learning to Juggle

Would lone parents rather exist on benefits than work to support their families? Must universities be responsible for ensuring their students can balance learning with childcare? What can elite higher education institutions learn from new universities in ensuring academic success for this group of non-traditional students? Lone Parents’ Experiences as Higher Education Students presents and explores unique research focusing on lone parents’ educational engagement in the UK higher education sector as a whole, a topic of acknowledged and increasing contemporary importance as lone parenthood persists as a social trend, and lone parents seek to develop their educational potential and employability. It is the only text in the field providing an in-depth, up-to-date sociological analysis of lone parents’ experiences as HE students. Through valuable new insights illuminating lone parents’ own interpretations of their experiences at UK universities, balancing higher education with wider life responsibilities, Hinton-Smith challenges deeply entrenched stereotypes of lone parents as lazy, work-shy, benefit scrounging and poor role models to their children. In sharp contrast, the evidence demonstrates many lone parents to be highly motivated to improve the lives of themselves and their children, and contribute usefully to society, by becoming educated and securely employed, despite the many barriers and lack of support they face.