Have your say
I've put a bunch of information on this page about things that proactive parents often ask me (as someone who has taught across both school and uni). I want to make this site and these resources as useful as possible though, so if you have questions or there are things you'd like covered that aren't, please let me know in our Facebook Community linked here. For example - would you find a guide to what to pack for living on campus handy? Or an FAQ about university contact hours? Whatever would be useful, I'm happy to help!
Many students report feeling like 'just a number' at uni.
As someone who has taught fulltime, permanently at both school and uni, I can definitely confirm that the learning environments are *really* different - even though I taught 18 year olds in Year 12 in November one year and 17 year olds in January at uni the next!
There are many supports available for uni students, so it is not true to say that students are left to struggle alone. But they really do need to have the confidence and proactive planning to independently access the help they need. This is foreign to most students, even the most academically strong.
If your child is neurodivergent, anxious or high-achieving, if they would benefit from increasing their organisational skills, if they find time-management or motivation challenging, if they do not feel 100% confident in new social situations, if they are working part-time or if they are still working on balancing study, their health, their social lives and their screen time, then the transition to uni is likely to be tough. And withdrawing from or failing even just one unit can set a student back a whole year of study, not to mention the impacts on their wellbeing.Ā
This is true for so many people though! Long story short, starting uni is hard for everyone, just in different ways.
The good news? There are things students and their families can do to be much better prepared and more confident.
What are the stats?
After 9 years, more than a quarter of undergraduate students in Australia won't complete their degree. Even students who enter university with an ATAR of 90 or above have a 15-20% risk of not completing their study after 8 years. E.g. in 2018 this equated to more than 50 000 *new students* dropping out of their degree.Ā
The average cost of an incomplete degree is $12 000 and people miss out on the additional lifetime earnings that commonly go along with a university degree.
Many students who consider dropping out cite their health and stress levels as a determining factor.
Most students who drop report feeling as though they have let themselves or others down.Ā
This is not where we want our young people to be. But the good news is, it can be avoided.
Proactively deciding a particular pathway is not for you and pursuing something different is a positive outcome. Spending years growing a HECS debt and feeling increasingly bad about academic performance is not.
Academics are research experts and there are many uni supports, so why do students find it so tough?
Many people argue that there are many student supports available at university, so there's no need to students to find uni challenging as there is so much help around. However, the course completion rates are still alarming. Obviously this means that there's something else at play.
At school, your child's teachers must have an education degree, must complete hours of teaching professional development each year and have in loco parentis duty of care for your child. At university, it's true there are many supports available, but teaching staff mostly have no education qualification and the Privacy Act in Australia prevents staff from contacting home about things many parents would deem important (e.g. absence from class or assessment or even unit failure).Ā
Students often have a wonderful senseĀ of community and belonging at school and they're usually unaware of just how much confidence and support they derive from this.Ā
I'm glad to say I'm trying to bridge this gap by acting as a coach in your family's corner as your child transitions to uni.Ā Ā
Join our Welcome and Uni Bootcamp course today
Sign up for access to an on-demand course you can watch with your child to help give them the confidence they need and avoid all the traps described above. These short videos will take you through all the key points students say they wish they'd known before starting uni. Happy study!
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