Robert Gordon University has committed to providing additional support to estranged students.
The Aberdeen university has signed the Stand Alone Pledge, which will assist students who do not have support of a family network.
RGU will offer all estranged students a wide range of support services, including guaranteed 365-day accommodation in student halls, access to their counselling service, cognitive behavioural therapy programmes, and student-led support groups.
They will also provide tailored access and outreach opportunities, along with personalised support for estranged students.
READ MORE: University of Edinburgh announces no return to campus until September
Estranged students are those who apply for college ot university without the support of family.
In 2018/19, the Students Awards Agency Scotland (SAAS) assessed around 150 students as estranged.
The pledge was launched by Stand Alone, an organisation that supports institutions to implement measures ot help estarnged students access and thrive in higher education.
RGU's signature means that Abertay University, Glasgow School of Art and Scotland's Rural College are the only higher education institutions not to have signed up to the pledge.
READ MORE: Young people 'turning their backs on job market' to start their own businesses
RGU Principal, Professor Steve Olivier, said: “As part of the University’s commitment to widening access to education, we have signed the Stand Alone Pledge to support students who are in the difficult position of being estranged from their parents.
“Accessibility and inclusivity are at the core of what we do here at RGU and by signing up to this pledge, we are committing ourselves to the support of students who find themselves in these challenging circumstances.”
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here