Information for Students
Information for Students
Support available
The type of support available will depend on the nature of your condition or impairment and also on your chosen course of study. Support may include:
A Disability Adviser will consider the impact of your condition or impairment on particular study-related tasks, and whether reasonable adjustments should be made to how your course is delivered or how you are assessed (for example, in exams).
The Assistive Technology Advisers will be able to assess your Assistive Technology requirements and recommend appropriate technology and training. There is a range of Assistive Technology available on Campus. It may also be necessary for you to have individual specialised software or equipment. In these circumstances, the Adviser will be able to help you access this equipment.
The Disability Service can arrange for one-to-one support to be put in place when appropriate. The nature of this support will depend on your individual needs. This could be communication support, notetaking, study support, mentoring or a personal assistant.
The Disabled Students Allowance is a source of funding that can be applied to in order to meet additional costs for support and/or equipment that have been deemed essential for you to fully access your course.
How to access support
If you are a new student applying through UCAS (Universities and Colleges Admissions Service) we strongly recommend that you disclose your disability on your application form. If you disclose at this stage the Disability Service will contact you automatically to discuss your needs. If you do not wish to disclose your disability on your UCAS form you can, at any time, self refer to access support from our service.
Please contact the Disability & Wellbeing Service via email: disability-wellbeing@strath.ac.uk or telephone: 0141 548 3402
It is helpful to provide the following information:
- Your Full Name
- Applicant Number (if known)
- Date of Birth
- Course
- Email Address
- Telephone Number
- Home Address Postcode
Students can request support at any time throughout their studies.
If you already receiving support from the Disability & Wellbeing Service you can contact us via telephone or email to request an appointment. We operate on a waiting list basis and our appointments are often booked in advance. Please provide your availability when requesting an appointment via e-mail.
For new students, who disclosed a disability at the application stage, the Disability & Wellbeing Service will automatically contact you before your course starts to invite you to complete our referral questionnaire which allows one of our advisers to start the process of identifying the most appropriate support requirements and allow us to engage with you.
If you have not previously used our services, we would ask you to complete our referral questionnaire which will allow one of our advisers to start the process of identifying the most appropriate support requirements and allow us to engage with you. If you would like to make a disability referral please complete our request a disability referral form.
What Happens Next?
Your information will be processed by a Disability Adviser, and you will be referred for the most appropriate type of meeting. You will be sent information about this by email once it has been processed. The adviser may also give information about other services available on campus, or start the process of recommending adjustments to your department. At your meeting with an Adviser, you will have the opportunity to explore any impact that your condition or impairment may have on your studies and your ability to access the University and its services.
If you require adjustments to how your course is assessed (such as additional time in exams), or if you require access to additional equipment or services which carry additional expense, you must provide us with this written evidence.
At busy times of the year (particularly from September to December) you are likely to have to wait for an appointment.
The waiting list will be managed on a first-come-first-served basis, although we will reserve the right to prioritise students with complex requirements whose immediate needs cannot be met through general campus-based provision.
Assistive Technology available on campus
A range of Assistive Technology is available to all students on campus. You can find out more about this by visiting the page.
Departmental Disability Contacts & Exam Coordinators
Every department has at least one Departmental Disability Contact (DDC). These are staff members within your own department who have a specific remit to support disabled students and act as the main liaison person for the advisers in the Disability & Wellbeing Service. Exam Coordinators make the specific provisions for exams for students if these are recommended by advisers. You can find out who your DDC or Exam Coordinator is by visiting our DDC and Exam Coordinators page.
Complaints Procedure and Information
It is 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
http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Publications/2005/04/0195400/54022
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.
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