Parents and carers
We realise that parents will want to support their sons or daughters in making higher education choices, and visiting universities on open days is an important step in helping your child to make decisions about where to study. At Bristol we offer an open day that will give potential applicants/students a feel for Bristol as well as an opportunity to ask questions about our courses, entry requirements and support services.
Specific parent information sessions on each of our open days focus on how to help your son or daughter navigate the application process and prepare for university. They are not compulsory, but you will need to book if you would like to attend.
Tips for parents and carers
Before the day
- Talk to your son or daughter about why they want to study a particular subject and what they are looking for in a university. Encourage them to think about questions they might want to ask
- Decide what to do in advance using the plan your day web page
- Make sure your schedule includes the information session for parents and carers
- Bristol is a beautiful city: if possible, plan some time to have a look around. The VisitBristol website is a good source of information for things to see and do
- Find out about our information for parents and carers and have a look at our factsheet for parents and carers.
On the day
- Leave plenty of time to get here; traffic in Bristol can get heavy. Please visit our how to get here web page
- Dress for the weather, and bear in mind that the University precinct, while fairly compact, includes a lot of open walkways between venues
- Bring some bottled water. There are several catering outlets around the precinct, as well as coffee and sandwich shops nearby, but there may be long queues
- Allow at least 15 minutes to get between session locations and be seated by the advertised start time
- Encourage your son or daughter to ask questions for themselves
- Be supportive if your son or daughter wishes to attend all or part of an open day on their own. This is a good chance for them to act independently – and good practice for student life
- Our open days are often extremely busy. We try to minimise delays, but please be prepared to queue in some instances
- Pace yourself! And whichever open day you attend, we hope you enjoy it and we welcome your comments.
Note: some of the documents on this page are in PDF format. In order to view a PDF you will need Adobe Acrobat Reader