Where will your son or daughter be happy?

It can be hard trying to reach a happy medium where both you and your son or daughter are happy with their chosen university or college. Some students want to spread their wings and move far from home, whereas parents may wish them to stay closer in case there are problems. Your son or daughter may apply to the same universities or colleges as their friends, whereas you would like them to branch out and meet new people. Although your son or daughter can benefit from your help and advice when considering where to study, it is ultimately their decision, so it is important to let them make up their own mind. What you can do, though, is help them to see the positive and negative aspects of their choices.

Things to considerStudents looking at a laptop

Your son or daughter should consider two issues initially when choosing where: the institution and its location. Universities and colleges come in different 'styles': some are based at more than one campus, whereas others are on one site; some are formal and academic and others are more modern and relaxed. What does your son or daughter want from a university or college? Academic prestige? Sports facilities? Job prospects? City or countryside? The location can have a big impact upon their experiences. Using their teachers' experiences and knowledge about applying may be helpful at this point, especially if those teachers have taken previous students to visit a university or college, although your son or daughter should not be swayed by others' opinions.

Which university or college?

All universities and colleges in the UCAS scheme are listed in the institution guide.

Each institution will have its own prospectus that your son or daughter can read through. Prospectuses offer information about the institution and the courses, but be aware that they will be biased.

Open days are one of the best ways to discover the good and bad points of a place - taking your son or daughter to see different institutions gives them an idea of what is on offer, and a chance to see if they will feel comfortable spending three or four years there. It can also be a good idea for them to ring the institution about any enquiries they may have. For a list of institutions in the UCAS scheme and links to information, go to our institution guide.

What is the best university or college?

There is no one course or institution that is perfect for everyone: different places suit different people, so it really depends on your son's or daughter's preferences.

You can find and compare information regarding the quality of teaching in universities and colleges on the Unistats website. The site contains feedback from higher education students combined with official statistics on entry requirements, teaching quality, student results and employment outcomes.

What will help your son or daughter choose the right course is thorough research on the university or college website and looking at independent reviews of teaching and research. A visit to the university or college by your son or daughter armed with a list of questions can tell them a lot more than a league table can. Only they will know if they could be happy there.

League tables

The position of a university or college in a newspaper league table can vary enormously, depending on the criteria used to work it out and the different weightings used. The Guardian Unlimited website allows you to change the method of calculating the subject tables so that the potential student can decide which criteria are important to them.

Seeing how easy it is to reorganise the rankings should tell you that the criteria a newspaper uses to select the best places to study may not necessarily be the criteria you might use. What sporting facilities a university or college has, for example, might be a very important factor for your son or daughter and if that was put in the criteria, their favourite course may come top!

That said, very few people will resist casting an eye over league tables and some universities and colleges actually encourage it by drawing attention to their position if it is particularly good. League tables can be useful as long as you read them with an intelligent and critical eye and a healthy dose of scepticism. They can tell your son or daughter how the institutions fare in other people's opinions but the best way to decide is to get a feel for a place and go from there.

For information and impartial advice check the Times Online or The Good University Guide (an interactive site which allows you to alter the weightings of the different measures to suit your own requirements and so create your own unique table).