Behind the Application: How Parents Support the Decision - POV: it’s a family journey
Behind every university application is a wider network of influence and support. This session draws on SMRS’s 2025 research with over 650 parents and carers across the UK, exploring how they experience and describe their role in supporting their child’s journey into higher education.
We explore confidence in the system, involvement in decision-making, financial considerations, and the information parents rely on when guiding choices—revealing how support is formed, understood, and delivered in practice.
While it is widely recognised that parents play a significant role in higher education decisions, this research moves beyond influence alone to look at what that role actually looks like on the ground, and where gaps in understanding and communication remain.
Join the discussion as we explore the implications of a journey that is becoming increasingly a shared family process.
Since joining SMRS in 2023, Isobel has contributed to a wide range of research projects, including survey design, focus group facilitation, competitor analysis, and data analysis and reporting. She has worked across private and public sector organisations, as well as within the higher education (HE) sector, supporting clients to refine their strategies through evidence-based insights.
In addition to project delivery, Isobel is involved more broadly in the general oversight of SMRS’s research activities and plays a key role in designing and delivering the syndicated HE Trends research.
Her experience includes projects for the University of Warwick, King's College London, Imperial College Business School, and LSE. She has also supported multinational organisations including InterContinental Hotels Group (IHG), the LEGO Group, and RR SMR.
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Smita Chohan is a Client Partner at SMRS, working with a wide range of higher education institutions to shape effective, insight‑led marketing strategies. With over 22 years’ experience in university marketing and student recruitment, Smita brings deep sector knowledge and a strong understanding of the challenges institutions face. She is known for her ability to step back and see the bigger picture, using insight to inform strategy and identifying the key levers institutions can pull to enhance marketing performance and student recruitment outcomes.
Prior to joining SMRS, Smita was Deputy Director of Marketing and Communications and Head of Student Recruitment at the University of Derby, leading teams across admissions, communications, alumni relations, events, outreach and campaigns in both UK and international markets.