How to Get Your Kids Through University (ebook)

Argumento de How to Get Your Kids Through University (ebook)

You are the parent of a teenager. This book is about you and how you can help your teenager who wants to study or may already be studying at university.

It doesnt matter whether you went to university or not: this book is still for you. If you did experience Higher Education university-level education that was probably long ago, but even if it wasnt, changes in Higher Education mean that your teenagers experience will be radically different from yours. Also, when you were younger, barely 15% of your age group went to university and now it seems like everybodys offspring is going.

UK Government statistics suggest that 43% of 18 year olds went into Higher Education in 2005 and this is set to rise to 50% by 2010. Consequently, this might be your familys first experience of going to university and you might be feeling a little in the dark as to what your teenager might experience.

In short, you are a typical parent of tomorrows student. You know the importance of the coming decisions in a way that young people do not. You are faced with the problems of offering the best advice and support you can, but have a limited background. We and this book are here to help with that.

Chris, your aspiring teenager, is perhaps your eldest offspring and certainly wants to enter Higher Education in about two years time or may already be there. It does not matter whether Chris is male or female, but she is more likely to be female since 7% more women than men gained entrance to university in 2004/5. This is a trend that will probably continue. Throughout this book we will use Chris as an example. She will be female throughout, but do not worry if you have a son. What is true of Chris, your daughter, will also be true of Chris, your son. Chris is apparently faced with a sequence of important life changing decisions. She will take them in her stride kids that age do without ever realising that each set of decisions opens one set of doors and closes another. She needs to decide what to do now, what choices to make before she enters university if shes not already there, and she needs to build realistic expectations of Higher Education. She will not be doing this alone since, whether you know it or not, you and others will guide her. But, of course, she is young and obviously knows what is best for her

You will also find, throughout the book, specific examples, which we have called Case Studies, of real life situations which show how students we have known have dealt with the various problems and situations described in the book.

We are three teachers in Higher Education. We are probably, on average, a bit older than you are and some of our kids have been through the university system and emerged on the other side. And perhaps like Chris, our parents did not go to university either; our families had no history of Higher Education.0