For parents and carers

Discover Uni is a free and independent resource. It has been developed for prospective students and those who support them by the organisations that fund and regulate higher education in the UK. It is designed to help them make sense of the information that’s out there and to find and understand what’s relevant and useful to them. Its aim is to help students make an informed choice about whether, where and what to study.

Students often feel overwhelmed by all the information out there about higher education and nervous about making a big decision. Parents and carers can find it difficult too and sometimes don’t know how best to help.

Higher education changes all the time. It can be difficult to keep up with the different types of courses, ways to study and available funding options. Even if you have been to university, you might not know about the full range of what is available.

Discover Uni can help you make sense of all the information about going to university. It covers all stages of the decision. Whether your child is deciding if they want to go into higher education or making their final course choice, there is information relevant to them.

It has two main areas:

• The first offers helpful facts and information to help your child decide what’s right for them.
• The second lets them find courses and compare key information, such as graduate earnings and what students think about the courses.

Some of the key sections are:

How will I pay for it?

This section on student finance explains the different types of funding available. It can help you to understand the support your child could get to pay for tuition fees or their living costs, and also where they might be entitled to extra support.

About higher education

This page talks through what higher education actually means and explains the different options for studying, including apprenticeships.

Why go to uni?

This page outlines some of the benefits of higher education to help you and your child think about what they could get out of it.

How to choose a course

Some things will be more important to your child than others when deciding what and where to study. This section outlines some of the main things to consider and explains how to find and understand information about these.

Discover Uni also has links to other quality information sources and makes suggestions about what you can do to find out more.