Over-protective parents force rise in exam re-sits for 'infantilised' university teens
Filed under: Teenagers
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Pushy and over-protective parents are being blamed by universities for soaring numbers of exam appeals and re-sits.
Oxford dons say "mummy and daddy" need to cut the "umbilical cord" and accept their children's exam results first-time round instead of constantly asking for reviews.
They claim that after paying for remarks and resits 'at every stage' of the A-level and GCSE process, some parents see nothing wrong with encouraging their children to appeal against their university exam marks as well.
But of the 224 appeals received in the past year, only one case of incorrect marking was found.
David Palfreyman, bursar of New College and director of the Oxford Centre for Higher Education Policy Studies, said: "Mum and dad have paid for a re-mark and a resit at each phase of the A-level process. The students just carry on that mentality at university and so do mummy and daddy.
"The family is investing in it so it is not surprising if mum and dad work out that there is this appeals process.
"Compared with my day, when you had to go out of your way to get to a phone box to ring mum and dad once a week, with the mobile phone mum can track you down any time but equally you can ring mum because you don't know how to open a tin of beans.
It is more difficult to sever that over-dependency if you can contact them so easily. If you are not careful, the child will march into their interview with their mother. It is infantilisation.
Professor Laurence Whitehead, one of the university's proctors, said some students were having difficulty "negotiating the transition from adolescence to adulthood".
"In many ways they are highly sophisticated, but many have also grown up more protected and with less experience of the world than almost any of their predecessors," he said.
More on Parentdish: Advice for parents of first year students
10 things to make you lose your cool with teenagers
- She had a few friends round<p> If it was just ‘a few’, why does the house look as if a bomb has hit it?</p>
- What's mine is yours<p> Your ‘borrowed’ T-shirt is found months later in a small dirty heap under her bed.</p>
- All the towels are dirty<p> Teenagers love clean towels. They also assume that there’s an invisible maid delivering fresh laundry every day.</p>
- The car has a dent in it<p> It’s not worth claiming on your insurance. So you’ll just have to put up with everyone thinking you’re the one who’s a rubbish driver.</p>
- There's nail varnish on the carpet<p> The logical place for her to paint her nails is, of course, the living room carpet, which now has a fuschia pink smudge right in the middle.</p>
- A chipped front tooth<p> You’ve spent fourteen years looking after his pearly whites (visits to the dentist, new toothbrushes, rationed sweets) - but today he forgot to wear his mouthguard …</p>
- The jar of coffee is out - again<p> You understand they’re permanently hungry. You’re resigned to getting through a loaf of bread every day. But why do they never, ever put anything away?</p>
- There's nothing in the fridge<p> Yesterday, every shelf was piled high. Today it’s nothing but a cold and empty space.</p>
- He's lost his phone - again<p> Why, when he spends his life texting, does he not take more care of his phone?</p>
- She had a few friends round<p> If it was just ‘a few’, why does the house look as if a bomb has hit it?</p>
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