The YACU Project: Exploring the Educational Experiences and Student Support Needs of Young Adult Carers in Australian Universities

Abstract

The lived experiences of Australian Young Adult Carers (YACs) are underresearched, particularly in relation to the educational implications of caregiving on their university experiences. As a consequence of this gap, student-YACs remain largely unrecognised and unsupported in both carer recognition and student equity support policy and practice. In response to these problems—together with my own experiences as a YAC while attending university—the aim of this research was to explore the educational experiences and support needs of university student-YACs, from their perspective as well as those of wider stakeholders, including carer associations and universities. To achieve this research aim, I designed the YACU-Student Experience Framework (YACU-SEF). The YACU-SEF, informed by my analysis and subsequent synthesis of pertinent theoretical notions and structures, provides a holistic conceptualisation of YACs’ university student experiences. Comprising two parts, a base model and an outer structure, the YACU-SEF draws upon three individual student development frameworks and two social theories to provide a conceptual, operational and analytical framework that can be used to investigate student-young adult caregiving.