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Oxford University has introduced separate sessions for parents and children at some open day events to encourage students to speak for themselves.
The move follows calls for middle-class parents to “butt out” of open days as they are basing the advice they provide their children on “out-of-date” ideas of university.
It came as influential figures have said parents’ attendance at university open days is fuelling the safe spaces culture among the so-called ‘snowflake’ generation.
And others have claimed parents are taking over open days by asking all the questions without letting teenagers have their say and explore their options, the Times Higher Education reported.
Thousands of teenagers are set to start university soon for the first time after receiving their A-level results earlier in the summer.
University of Oxford guidePlay!
Speaking at Buckingham University’s Festival of Higher Education, Samina Khan, director of admissions at Oxford, said her university has had to devise new ways with dealing with parents attending open days.
She said: “Parents are always welcome, but, sometimes, let the child talk.
“We’ve developed programmes where we separate them: the parents go off, have a cup of tea, and we take the students elsewhere.
“We find that does work, that it helps students speak for themselves, which is what we want.”
She wasn’t alone in expressing her concerns. Mary Curnock Cook, the head of UCAS, the universities admission service, said middle-class parents should “butt out” of open days.
She explained: “I think of middle-class parents, they should butt out, because they’ll be using a 30-year-old out-of-date model trying to advise their children.
“Where the kids are [the] first in [a] family to go, actually persuading parents that it’s the right thing is a really important part of making a child feel comfortable.”
Separately, James Seymour, Buckingham’s director of admissions and recruitment, said at his institution’s staff sometimes “genuinely have to shoehorn parents out of the room” before tests.
However, in some cases, universities have pushed to see more from parents, particularly in the case of applicants from disadvantaged backgrounds.
Robbie Pickles, head of student recruitment at the University of Bath, told the conference: “There are some sets of families where students are very keen to go [to university] and it’s parents who are driving them towards not going on to study.
“There are groups where it would be nice to see their parents engage more, particularly students from certain areas of the country.”
Jane Lunnon, Headteacher of Wimbledon High School
Jane Lunnon, Headteacher of Wimbledon High School CREDIT: JULIAN ANDREWS/EYE R8 PRODUCTIONS
Last month, Jane Lunnon, headmistress of Wimbledon High School, argued that by over-protecting children, parents are instilling less confidence in teenagers and limiting their capacity to deal with adulthood.
She said: “When I was going to university, [it was] nothing to do with your parents – you’d go to your open days on your own.
“Now universities are running sessions for parents. Parents go along to the open day.
“This whole point about breaking away and taking control of your own identity and taking those risks, is to some extent compromised by increasing parental need to protect and support.
“And I think to some extent the universities are complicit in that.”
New research has shown different types of over-protective parents – from the ‘pink helicopters’ to those who invest money helping their daughters find a suitable bachelor.
