Who will actually talk to a parent

More people than you would guess. Admissions offices answer parent questions routinely. So do international offices, student support services, and often the department itself. What they will not do, once your child is enrolled and an adult, is discuss their individual record without permission — which is a rule about privacy, not a brush-off.

So before enrolment, ask anything. Afterwards, anything about your child goes through your child. If what you need is a general answer — how fees work, what happens if a module is failed, what support exists — those are policy questions, and any institution will answer them for anybody who asks.