Pushy parents have won the right to take over their children's university applications and some even expect to sit in on interviews for places.

In the latest example of “helicopter parenting”, in which controlling adults hover continuously over every aspect of their children's lives, the universities admissions service Ucas said that it had allowed parents to act as proxy in their child's search for a place. Until now applicants had to deal directly with Ucas themselves.

A spokeswoman from Ucas said that the proxy service had been set up ostensibly to help students who were away on a gap year, who could nominate a parent or a friend to take over from them. But she conceded that there was growing pressure from some parents, who would sometimes call in to check and double-check on their children's applications.

One in ten applicants this year is believed to have nominated parents to make calls on his or her behalf. Ucas says it would much prefer to deal directly with students than their parents. “You get a much better feel for what they want to do themselves. Otherwise they may end up just doing what their parents want,” the spokeswoman said.

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Although the proxy service will allow parents access to Ucas, it will not give them an automatic right to speak directly to university admissions officers.

Angela Milln, head of admissions at Bristol University, said that as most applicants were over the age of 18, parents should trust them to handle their own applications.

“It's much better to speak to the student directly, particularly at this time of year, when you might be offering guidance to applicants who have not met their conditional offers,” she said.

She added that even when students made telephone inquiries to the universities about their applications, parents could sometimes be heard commenting in the background.

Parental involvement has become more of an issue since the introduction in 2006 of variable tuition fees of £3,000 a year. “Parents increasingly see their child's university education as an investment and they want to find out about it,” Ms Milln said.

Frank Furedi, Professor of Sociology at the University of Kent, suggested that interfering parents were “destroying the distinction between school and higher education”.

He added that some even expected to sit in on their child's university interviews. “All universities now have to take the parent factor into account. On university open days you can see more parents attending than children,” he told BBC Online.

Ucas said that it has experienced its highest number of calls ever this year after a record number of candidates passed their A-level examinations.

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