In our experience students who leave university before completing their courses do so for for reasons usually associated with choices they have made before they came to university: a student who is happy with their course and with the university but not with their peer group they have around them can usually change their accommodation.
It can be the wrong course; university, city/town; not what they expected.
Students don't generally get up one morning and decide that they are leaving university,
it is a gradual process sometimes over a number of weeks, sometimes months.
As a parent you may become aware that your son or daughter is not interested in their course, and starts missing classes, or is expressing disillusionment with the course/university, is not joining in with the social activities.
In the end they may have a combination of reason's for leaving and at this point your son or daughter may be having to cope with extreme emotions; it will help them if as a parent you can accept their decision and support them so that they don't just leave university and 'drop out' or 'fail'.
Hopefully, your son/daughter can turn it into a positive choice, so if they have made the decision to leave university they leave positively and choose to do something else: get a job; transfer to a different course; transfer to a different institution; build on their qualifications and experience to help them get on the course they originally wan ted. If a parent can offer support and are non-judgemental then the young person will be best able to make the decisions that need to be made and not see it as a failure.
Once they make the decision not to return to university or to transfer to another university there are things your son or daughter will need to do and, depending on when they make their decisions, it may affect whether they will be able to get funding for further study, it is important that they contact the Student Support - Admin Assistant who will be able to advise them regarding their decisions.
Page last updated July 2008 sm49 Legal statement