It's very important for us to know whether you are happy with the Needs Assessment process and conclusions.
The purpose of the needs assessment is to explore, with your help, any impact that your condition or impairment may have on your studies or your ability to access the University and its services. Where appropriate, and again with your help, we will identify suitable support and facilities which will enable you to fully access your course. The University of Strathclyde is a validated assessment centre, and you can get further information about the standards expected of needs assessments at The Scottish Government Website.
Our aim is to support disabled students as best we can to get equal access to their course of study. An assessment of needs entails a judgment about how a disability is likely to impact on study, and disabled students needs or course requirements may change over time. If the outcome of an original assessment seems no longer sufficient to enable you to access your course you should contact the Disability & Wellbeing Service and request a review.
If there was some aspect of the assessment process that you found unsatisfactory, and you wish to complain, then you should in the first instance make your complaint, in writing, to the Disability & Wellbeing Manager, Chris McKenzie (chris.g.mckenzie@strath.ac.uk). Hopefully that would not be necessary and any difficulties will be resolved by talking to the assessors. Possible grounds for complaint, however, could include:
- lack of prior information about the assessment process
- the range of evidence was not taken into account at the assessment
- recommendations or conclusions did not appear to follow from the recognised impact of the student's disability on their study
- lack of clarity or factual errors in the assessment report
The Disability & Wellbeing Manager will respond to your complaint as soon as possible. This may involve an invitation to the student to attend a meeting. It is then open to the Disability & Wellbeing Manager to ask the assessors to review their needs assessment, which may include reviewing the outcome.
If you feel that your complaint is still not satisfactorily resolved, then you may take your complaint to the Head of Disability & Wellbeing, who has responsibility for the Disability Team.