At King’s College London, we recognise that being estranged can have a significant impact on educational opportunities and outcomes. We therefore provide pre-entry and on-course support to students who have lost contact with and are no longer supported by their families. This support includes additional financial support and advice on accommodation, finances, and academic matters.

Please note the information on this webpage is for pre-entry to King’s. If you're a current King's student or would like to learn more about the support available once you've enrolled at King's, please visit our support offered to current estranged students at King's webpage.

Our definition of an estranged student is someone aged under 25, who no longer has the support of their parents/caregivers due to an irreconcilable breakdown of their relationship. This might mean your biological or, if you have been adopted, your adoptive parents – whoever has been responsible for supporting you in the past.

This involves having no verbal or written contact, usually for a minimum of 12 months. This definition also includes students who may have been disowned, or if both parents are deceased.

Have you been in local authority care? You may be considered care experienced or a care leaver rather than estranged. Visit our pre-entry care experienced webpage for more information.

If you are estranged and applying to study at King’s, we strongly advise you to disclose this via your UCAS application. This will allow admissions staff to take your circumstances into consideration and will not have a negative impact on your application.

We use this data to holistically assess an applicant’s future potential to succeed and to differentiate between similar highly qualified candidates.

As an estranged student, you are eligible for contextual admissions. Please see below for examples of what this might mean for your application:

• Depending on the course applied for and the qualifications you are studying, you may receive a reduced offer for your course. You can find out more on our contextual admissions page.
• Students whose application is considered as being close to the standard required to gain an interview may be offered an interview.
• Students whose admissions test score is considered as being close to the required standard may be given an offer or interview.
• Students who narrowly fail to meet their conditional offer will be given additional consideration as to whether their place should be confirmed.

King's College London has a designated member of staff (pre-entry), who can assist estranged students with all aspects of the application process: you can talk about course choices, receive feedback on a draft personal statement, tips on interviews as well as guidance on King's other support services e.g., student funding or the disability services.

For more information please contact priority-groups@kcl.ac.uk.

King’s verification: Eligibility

To be verified as an estranged student upon your application to King’s, you must be:

• Under 25 at the start date of your undergraduate programme
• Assessed as a home fee payer i.e., be eligible for a loan from Student Finance

King’s verification: Evidence needed

To be verified as an applicant who is estranged, you will be required to indicate this on your UCAS application, and you will need to submit evidence to the King’s Apply portal. The information below outlines the documents you will need to complete this process.

• A letter or email from your teacher/tutor or designated safeguarding lead at school or college can confirm you are estranged.
•  Student Finance England (or your Home Nation equivalent) will release a confirmation of estrangement form for the academic year you are applying for. This form is often updated much later in the application cycle, so you will need to check when this will be made available. After completing the assessment and you receive the letter detailed below, please upload this to your King’s application once you receive it.
• Letter of entitlement - a letter or email from the independent team at student finance confirming that you have been assessed and verified as an independent student because you are irreconcilably estranged from your parents.

Please note: We do not accept the application form which you and your chosen 3rd party complete as evidence of your estrangement. This is the application form Student Finance will use to complete their assessment. We only accept the outcome of your estrangement status from the independent team at student finance, which will be your letter of entitlement confirming independent status for the duration of your studies.

In addition to providing evidence, we strongly advise that applicants:

• Indicate that you are estranged from your family/caregivers on your personal statement.
•  Ensure your teacher reference (if applicable) gives additional information and provides context.
• If you have mitigating circumstances, please visit the admissions mitigating circumstances guidance webpage, and complete the relevant form. There are more details on applying to university as an estranged student on the UCAS webpages.

If you have any issues with providing evidence, please contact us directly at priority-groups@kcl.ac.uk

It is possible to claim independent status with Student Finance due to estrangement from parents if you have proof of the following:

No written or verbal contact with biological parents in past 12 months before start of academic year

The situation is irreconcilable. In this case, your personal household income will be taken into consideration for the means-tested elements, instead of your parents’ income.

To do this you will need to submit evidence to support the claim, from an independent person with good standing in the community. This person should normally have known about your situation for a substantial amount of time and can verify that you don’t have contact with your biological or adoptive parents (for example a letter from a social worker, advice worker, tutor, teacher). Please note that to get the available financial support, you need to agree to means-testing by Student Finance.

King’s College London recognises the challenges faced by estranged students. We offer extensive support before you start at university.

Pre-university projects & events

King’s College London Widening Participation department prioritises estranged learners on long-term pre-university programmes. To learn more about long-term programmes run by King's Widening Participation department, visit our projects for prospective students webpages.

King's also offers in-person guided campus tours as well as online campus tours, where you can find out more about King's, our world-class research, outstanding facilities and more about our student experience. In addition to this King's offers open days both online and in-person, giving students the opportunity to find out more about our courses and speak to current students and staff. Discover more about our upcoming campus tours and open days on our undergraduate events webpage.

If you would like to find out more about the support available once you’ve enrolled at King’s, or you want information on how to get verified once you've joined, please visit our support offered to current estranged students at King's webpage.

UCAS - Financial support for students not supported by their parents (estranged) Advice and guidance on applying to university for estranged students.

Unite Foundation Scholarship If you are an Estranged student, you will be eligible to apply for the Unite Foundation Scholarship, which offers free accommodation for the duration of your undergraduate studies.