Support for Carers

ANU recognises that the time commitment and emotional stress of caring can have a significant impact on a student's university participation.

Our supportive team of DisAbility and Equity Advisors provide advice, evidence-based supports and adjustments to help minimise the impact of your caring role on your studies.

They will work with you to develop a personalised Education Access Plan (EAP), which outlines reasonable adjustments to support you to achieve your personal best whilst studying at the ANU, provided the inherent requirements of courses are maintained.

Who is a carer?

ANU recognises carers in line with the Carers Recognition ACT 2010 which states:

Carers are people who provide personal care, support and assistance to another individual in need of support due to disability, medical condition, including terminal or chronic illness, mental illness or is frail and aged. A person is not considered a carer if they:

  • provide care either for payment, as a volunteer for an organisation, or for the requirements of education.
  • simply because they: are the spouse, de facto partner, parent, other relative or guardian of an individual who requires care; or live with an individual who requires care.

To be eligible for support at ANU, you may be recognised as the primary carer or have a caring role that impacts your ability to participate in studies on the same basis as other students. Eligibility for support will be considered on a case by case basis upon the receipt of appropriate documentation.

What documentation do I need?

To register you need to provide documentation verifying you have caring responsibilities that impact your ability to participate in studies on the same basis as other students.

This can take the form of either:

  1. Fill in Health Practitioner Report for Carers (PDF 96.46KB)

  2. A current Centrelink grant letter or income statement (no more than one month old), confirming you are in receipt of Centrelink Carer Payment or Carer Allowance

    OR

  3. A current letter from a Registered Medical or Allied Health Professional of either yourself as the student carer or the person that is being cared for which should include the following information:
  • the nature of the condition of the person you are caring for (disability, medical condition, mental illness or frail and aged)
  • whether their condition is permanent, fluctuating or temporary
  • a statement describing the care for which the person depends on you
  • how your study may be impacted by these caring responsibilities
  • recommendations regarding adjustments to support you in your study
  • the time period of support you require If you are experiencing a medical condition or disability, in addition to your caring role, a separate Health Practitioner Report (PDF 96.46 KB) must be completed by your treating practitioner about you.

How do I register as a carer?

Step 1 - Create an Access account

  • To create an account in Student Access Portal.
  • Fill out the request form with the relevant detail as per university records and click Submit.
  • Note: ANU Student ID number should be entered without a "u". E.g. Student ID is u1234567, then please just enter 1234567. There should be 7 numeric digits.
  • You will receive a verification email with a link to verify your account.
  • Please click on the link provided in the email to verify.
  • Once verified successfully, you will receive an email on how to access your student portal.
  • You can then proceed to the next step.
  • Note: should some detail in your initial registration be incorrect, you will also receive an email from Accessibility asking you to re-register using the correct information.

IMPORTANT: Once verified, Accessibility will review your account registration request. This may take several days depending on workload.

Step 2 - Submit a Registration form through the Access Portal

Note: Access is Single-Sign-On (SSO) enabled, that means if you are within the ANU environment and have previously logged into an ANU system, you do not need to enter your username/password details again, simply click on the SSO option on the entry page.

  • Log into the Student Access Portal
  • Click on My Access and Inclusion Supports drop-down on the left pane and select Access & Inclusion Registration Form
  • Provide all the relevant details, such as the purpose of your registration, medical/disability conditions, and what type of adjustments you require, and submit the form.
  • To submit the supporting documents, click on My Access and Inclusion Supports drop-down on the left pane and select the Documents tab. To add a document/s click on Add New Accessibility Document.

After successful registration, appointment details will be provided via an email and can be viewed in the Student Access Portal.

The registration appointment must be attended to complete the registration process.

If you have trouble registering, please contact the Access & Inclusion office.

Reference documents

Use contact details to request an alternative file format.

Related links

Contact

Page Owner: Wellbeing