Planning your support
What support is available?
What happens when you get here?
Who pays for support, such as support workers and equipment?
Disabled students from the EU and other countries outside the UK
Planning your support
If you're offered a conditional or unconditional place at the University, our Pre-entry Disability Adviser will contact you by letter or email to provide you with information about support, and invite you to provide details about your specific learning difficulty or disability, via our online profile form.
Our Pre-entry Disability Adviser will also ask what support you've had in the past and what you feel you may require at university. You'll be given information about the funding available to disabled higher education students, Disabled Students' Allowances (DSAs), and how to apply for this funding if applicable. Students on further education courses are funded differently, but are entitled to exactly the same support from the University.
The information you provide will help us advise you about support at university, explain what evidence will be required from you, how to obtain it and who to send it to. We'll provide details about university accommodation and accessibility if this is a priority for you. Get information about our accommodation.
Please remember that you have a responsibility to decide if a course is suitable for you. If you're offered the opportunity to try out any practical activities that will be a key part of the course we advise you to do this.
If you're concerned that there may be parts of the course that you may have difficulties with because of your disability or specific learning difficulty, please speak to the faculty and our Pre-entry Disability Adviser.
There are only two circumstances where we may not be able to provide support:
- Where there are serious health and safety concerns
- Where there is the existence of a barrier we cannot overcome
On these very rare occasions we'll contact you to explain these circumstances in detail. We may ask for some help from you - you may be asked to come in to the University and take part in a risk assessment. If we can't find a solution we will discuss this with you and explain the reasons.
What support is available?
We make individual recommendations to your faculty about the support you'll need from them, such as:
- particular exam arrangements
- extra time for assignments
- handouts in advance of lectures
- written material in a particular format
- being allowed to take a note taker or voice recorder into lectures
These are just examples of reasonable adjustments which may be made; what will be recommended for you will depend on your specific requirements. We use a document called a Support Summary to tell your faculty what support you'll need. You'll always get the opportunity to read and approve the Support Summary before it goes to your faculty.
The other main part of your support is the practical assistance you may need. For example, you may require a note taker, a British Sign Language interpreter or regular sessions with a dyslexia support tutor or a mentor. These types of support are usually funded via Disabled Students’ Allowances, which we talk more about later.
The University has a Personal Assistance Scheme which will arrange any support you need from another person, so that you don’t have to worry about recruiting support workers or paying them.
All types of support are available to higher education, further education students and students following our courses in franchise colleges.
If you think you will need personal support to live independently at university, such as help with dressing, personal hygiene, cooking and cleaning, this cannot be funded via Disabled Students’ Allowances. Instead, you will need to contact your local Social Services team to discuss a package of support. Find details of local councils.
What happens when you get here?
In many cases, arranging support for a disabled student or a student with dyslexia is straightforward, particularly if you've given us comprehensive information about your requirements before you arrive. We may be able to organise most things before you get here, but you'll still be welcome to come and see us if there's anything you'd like to discuss.
If your support requirements are complex or we need more information from you, we'll invite you to meet a Disability Adviser when you arrive. They, and the rest of the Disability Support Team, will be available to assist you throughout your time at the University.
As a new student we'll also invite you to our Welcome Day.
Who pays for support such as support workers and equipment?
Students on higher education courses
Disabled Students’ Allowances (DSAs) can pay for study-related costs you may incur at university as a result of a disability, mental health difficulty or specific learning difficulty, such as dyslexia, if you're on a higher education course.
The allowances are not means-tested and should not affect any disability benefits you may currently receive. You do not have to pay this money back, as the allowances are not loans. For example, they could pay for:
- Computer equipment and assistive software eg voice recognition
- Other equipment eg tape recorders, radio aids, personal CCTV
- Assistance from support workers eg note-takers, readers, mobility enablers, mentors, dyslexia tutors.
Important things to remember about applying for DSAs:
- It's your responsibility to apply for DSAs; members of the Disability Support Team can't do this for you, although we're happy to provide advice and assistance.
- It can take an average of three months for an application to be processed, so apply as soon as possible.
- You can apply for DSAs even before you know which university you'll be attending, so you should apply early in the spring of the year you'll be starting at university.
- Read up on the application process first, as there is key information you need to provide, as well as critical steps along the way which you need to know about.
The Disability Support Team is always happy to provide advice and assistance with applications for Disabled Students’ Allowances. More information about DSAs is available in a booklet called Bridging the Gap and on the DirectGov website.
You may also find it useful to visit the YourDSA website for a good overview of the process of applying for DSAs.
Students on further education courses
If you're a disabled student on a further education course, the money for your support is given to the University. This means that you don't need to apply for this funding, because we do it instead. Depending on the level of funding we need for your support, we may have to supply some information about your disability and the support you'll need to the relevant funding agency.
Remember that the funding for your disability support is entirely separate to any funding you might need for your course fees – you'll need to ensure you can pay your course fees or find out whether any help is available for this. The Disability Alliance has more information about further education funding for disabled students.
Disabled students from the EU and other countries outside the UK
When an offer has been made to an International or EU applicant, the Pre-entry Disability Adviser will send information by post or email about the support that may be available at the University because of a disability, medical condition or specific learning difficulty.
Please remember that International/EU students are not eligible for UK government funding for disabled students (Disabled Students’ Allowances). It's therefore extremely important that you contact our Disability Support Team early in the application process so that we may assess your support requirements and investigate possible sources of funding.