Education | UNIVERSITY PHOTO CREDIT: OLGA REUTSKA | DREAMSTIME.COM
How do parents help a young adult embark on the next stage in life, independence, whilst addressing concerns over safety, responsibility and awareness? Studies show that: w Over a third of parents will spend in excess of five hundred pounds equipping offspring for university, not taking rent, bills and tuition fees into account. w The greatest fear for parents who have a daughter is for her safety; this is in direct contrast to the student herself where evidence indicates she is less worried. w Half of all parents teach their children the basics of fending for themselves: how to wash, iron and cook whilst instilling budgeting skills and awareness. w Over eighty per cent of parents worry about the financial abilities of their children in advance of them leaving home for university or college for the first time. w There’s a sexual differential of worries between boys and girls, but the main concern is their budgeting abilities, and whether or not they will make friends whilst away from home. Costs of university High tuition fees and living expenses mean many students believe it will be necessary for them to retain a part-time job whilst studying. There is a case for studying abroad, with lower fees the attraction. Keeping in touch Despite concerns about practical abilities, parents are far less likely to keep in contact regularly with their sons than daughters, with a third of parents of boys believing their child will only contact them once a week during term time.
University League Table 2017 Budgeting and life skills Almost 90 per cent of students admit they have never managed or paid a household bill. Almost a third of 16-19 year olds admit to not knowing how to wash or iron their clothes. So parents can help by teaching children a few simple budget recipes, allocating them specific chores around the house to perform and offering advice on how to look after their finances. Parents considering student accommodation should find out how well trained on site staff are in understanding student needs; for instance, with advice on simple life skills such as registering with a local GP. Out of the two parties involved in this momentous life change, it’s the parents who usually find it hardest to adjust, with both mums and dads prone to needing tissues whilst bravely waving goodbye. Time does fly and after a few weeks parents realise that those tidy bedrooms will soon be very annoyingly a mess again; it may even be sooner, as the highest drop out rate for students is during the first term. Perhaps the advice here is to not give them a hard time if that is the case, as it may be they will turn into another Steve Jobs, Bill Gates, Marc Zuckerberg, Jon Snow, Ellen DeGeneres or Harper Lee… So after the dust has settled, parents can quickly turn their thoughts to planning for a full house again, and perhaps an even
(source: The Complete University Guide) 1 Cambridge 2 Oxford 3 London School of Economics 4 Imperial College London 5 St Andrews 6 Durham 7 Loughborough 8 Warwick 9 Lancaster 10 University College London
Universty League Table 2017 for the southeast region (source: The Complete University Guide) 2 Oxford 11 Surrey 17 Southampton 18 Sussex 23 Kent 27 Reading 37 Royal Holloway, University of London 55 Buckingham 59 University for the Creative Arts 61 Portsmouth
fuller one as welcoming a future daughter or son-in-law over the family threshold becomes a possibility. At the end of the day, statistics don’t lie, and a university education is increasingly the best route for young people to take to stand a chance of obtaining gainful employment in an increasingly competitive environment.
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Websites: www.thecompleteuniversityguide.co.uk and www.scholarship-search.org.uk
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