Planning holidays? Think twice if you have a Year 12 student     054

The end of Year 12, for students and their parents, can be a disaster waiting to happen. This is because of an in-built organisational disconnect between and among schools, students and parents. Schools think that Year 12 never finishes because Year 12 students stay forever. This is because the day after they leave the new Year 12 cohort commences. The result is that some schools give Year 12 students very little advice concerning managing the transition from high school to university and beyond. Key dates and open days, for example, are rarely explained.

Students themselves have their own disconnect. For the past 13 years teachers have always been there to tell them what to do, and life at school just continues, year after. The concept that in Year 12, students must live two lives: the life of a Year 12 student; and the next life, the life of a university student, is mostly beyond their grasp. Students typically think that things will just happen as a result of actions taken by teachers, and indeed by their parents.

Parents are also caught up in all this. They focus their attention on giving their Year 12 children the best support they can. Understandably most worries are about achieving the best results, and whether the results will be good enough to enter the preferred university course and career. But at the same time they too believe that the school will be arranging an easy transition into the world beyond Year 12

The reality is that universities and other institutions have long since put in place formal structures to admit students into courses for the next year. Such plans involve cut-off dates, and opportunities for making choices, and changing those choices. But everything marches to a military beat; there is no stopping; and for those who fall behind there are consequences.

One typical result of students and parents being too disengaged from this reality is that plans are made for families and students to be on holidays when they could be at home attending to university enrolment. Each year details are available from the Universities Admissions Centre guide, obtainable from most newsagents or sometimes from schools. There are quite a number of key dates. I won’t give exact details here because from time to time the government and the universities make significant changes in how the process works. You must check the process, and check it early.

There is however always provision for students to change their course preferences and this means that additional course information must be sought, usually from the universities themselves. A very effective way of doing this is to attend university information days. Students should be have their ATARS and perhaps details of programs and experiences they may have completed which indicate commitment to the university course they want. Students who simply turn up to an information day and say to a lecturer: “Well my mother wants me to do this course but my ATAR is not very good. I am not that interested but my mother said I had to enrol. Can you help me?” is likely to receive little or no practical assistance. On the other hand those who show clear motivation and engagement with a course may be surprised at just how helpful lecturers can be. Universities are very large organisations and there are always options and pathways which students and their parents do not know about.

However if your Year 12 son or daughter is on holidays, or even out of the country, having such a face-to-face conversations is not possible. And then there is enrolment day at university to consider. The whole point is that if everything goes according to plan then the process can be managed from a distance. But if there is a problem, or a chance of a problem, then it is far more effective if your son and daughter, and you for that matter, are available for direct and immediate action. Staying at home also allows you and your children access to other people who may be able to assist. So this period of time has to be planned carefully.

Under the present changes to the offer and acceptance process there will still be a series of rounds extending into February. Usually your child can be considered for these subsequent rounds unless the initial offer was for a first preference. At this time of year procedures move at frightening speed. Although participation in these later rounds would certainly not affect most students the possibility is there, and surely this is another reason not to be on holidays.

So buy the Universities Admission Centre guidebook, study and understand the procedures and what your child has to do. Christmas time may be a happy family time but during this whole period Year 12 students are faced with a huge and relentless computer and a bureaucratic labyrinth of university options and pathways. Do not leave them to their fate. You, and possibly a whole team of relatives, need to be on deck and on duty. Being an educational consultant—that’s you—is a 24/7 job.

All content copyright—Mark Thackray—Australian Educational Services