In July 2025 the university published an updated version of the Care Experienced Students Policy. The following changes have been made:
• In Section 2.3 reference to the Retention policy has been removed as the policy has been decommissioned. All relevant information is available in the Student Privacy Notice.
• In Section 3.3 Financial Support, reference to a Care Experienced Students’ Bursary has been removed as the bursary is being withdrawn effective 31 July 2025.
• In Section 3.3 Financial Support, reference to the ESFA has been updated to reflect that the Department for Education has taken over this function as of March 2025. Page 10 of 10
• In Section 3.4, reference to Talk Campus has been removed as the contract between The Open University and Talk Campus ends 30 September 2025.
• In Section 3.4, the SHOUT reference has been amended to reflect that students should text ‘SHOUT’ rather than ‘OU’ to 85258 from 16 August 2025 onwards.
• The policy has been put into the latest template to improve accessibility.
