Best Universities for Autistic DD with social anxiety. Looking for flexibility

they are paying for a service and it’s up to them before choosing that service to make sure it suits them. With whatever reasonable adjustments the university will provide.

Which has been explained to you multiple times is not going to be weekly check ins on the off chance the student has an issue regardless of what student wellbeing has put in the student’s plan.

you say it’s only 5 mins. I’ve spent hours last week dealing with students who actually have got problems and needed support. On top of all the actual teaching, prep, marking , admissions work and course administration

I am workload planned 30 hours a year for dealing with student issues. And that includes the 3x personal tutorials a year they get. So I hit my 30 hours by mid Oct. The rest of the time and 1-1 student issues including sending emails I’m effectively doing in my own time. It all adds up and is why I’m often answering emails in the evening, or at 7am or prepping at weekends.

This is just plain disablism.

Loads of people work from home to avoid these sorts of things.

They’re ’chasing it up’

@Fearfulsaints I do accept students grow and develop at university but, as others have said, it’s a two way street and a university education is meant to end up with a working person or the state has coughed up a lot of money for no return. Not sure that’s fair either.

The list of adjustments shocks me to some extent. It makes the degree “less” in many ways and I’m very sorry to say, the young person less employable.

If jobs require collaborative working, presentations, going into the office and accurate spelling - they do. Why should employers not employ people who can do the full job over those who cannot? Why would they accept a partial job done and other, over burdened, employees take up the slack? Is that truly fair? We need balance and that’s why we have reasonable adjustments. Reasonable. No employer wants emails sent out with spelling mistakes or in reports. Universities must make it clear spelling is important. Too many adjustments mean career ambitions stop in their tracks and universities should be honest about expectations and parents need to be realistic.

So when she / you have approached the disability service and said ‘this is in her plan but it isn’t happening- please can you either chase it up or suggest a reasonable alternative adaptation that meets dd’s need (that she will not seek out help if she needs it, due to her disability) and which can be delivered consistently’, what does the disability service say?

But that’s what’s in her plan.

She'll need to approach course lecturers or her personal tutor herself to chat through any issues. If by check in, you mean that someone will proactively seek her out to ask her, then that's not what happens. She'll need to advocate for herself.

Contact others. It could be done by email. It just says contact.

I genuinely don’t understand why that question can’t be asked, by automated e-mail, by a member of disability support staff, who can then refer any question on if required.

But if she says ‘yes’, what is your expectation that the tutor does? Offer help? Signpost? Address the difficulty? Contact others on her behalf?

NO!

Just to ask is there anything you’re struggling with or need to share with someone! That’s it. Thats all. And she won’t say much on reply, but she would answer if she was.

So your expectation is that the individual tutor would, in that ‘check in’ be able to answer any academic query that your DD has, that has not been answered in lectures, seminars and her own individual reading / work? In 5 minutes?

There are universities that have weekly 1:1 tutorials, but unless she’s at one of them, having an academic ‘check in / individual tutorial’ weekly sounds a LOT.

I think it’s fair to say it’s a subject which all tutors know about. There are specialisms but it’s not like history or English where there are specialisms that are miles apart.

Honestly University now is incredibly expensive so on that basis alone i wouldnt recommend any young person go for it unless they are absolutely sure its right for them and they are going to get enough out of it.

£50,000-£60,000 of debt is a really expensive way to experiment and see if you can cope with something.

I think something like OU where she can continue studying the way thats working for her is a good idea.

Speaking to me as a tutor about academic work is largely pointless. I work in a specific discipline. My tutee list includes students doing a wide range of degrees. I have no idea how to approach their work. All I can do is to tell them to speak to their module convenors who set and oversee the work. The role of tutor is essentially just a signposting function but takes up a lot of time.

If the student says "I'm struggling with this deadline and I haven't done any work" then again I'd signpost to the module convenors and our huge education teams who provide lots of guides and training about how to manage deadlines and approach academic writing.

(My disabled student’s personal tutor in fact teaches a totally different subject, which is why I may be unfamiliar with the responsibilities in a different institution)

So does this tutor deliver her entire course? Or, if they do not, do any questions raised have to be referred on to others by the tutor?

What is the expectation of action on the tutor? Do they answer the question? Seek answers from other academics? Refer her on to other academics?

Unless the tutor genuinely delivers the entire course and can answer all academic questions immediately themselves, would it not be possible for the check-in to be with the disability service, who then handle the ‘on cost’ of getting answers or putting your DD in touch with the appropriate lecturer?

Yes, I posted right before that appeared, apologies. The overlap between our responsibility for students' mental well-being and their academic progress can get quite blurred.

For those say universities don't make reasonable adjustments, these are some of the ones I'm involved in at my university as a lecturer:

• lecture / seminar / lab materials in format so can be used with accessibility software (eg readaloud)
• any printed lecture / seminar / lab materials in different formats when needed eg large font
• lecture / seminar / lab materials available at least 24 hours before session, usually week before (for students who need to look in advance)
• modify seminars so there are different options to speaking out eg mentimeter, post-it notes, emailing me answer to discussion questions before session or after
• modified figures for colour blind or visually impaired students
• students with support plans allowed to record lectures
• coursework designed with ND and disabilities in mind
• flexibility over group coursework for students with support plans
• flexibility over presentations (is a presentation needed, can a student do it another way eg record it, 1-1 rather than to class, can I use a another assessment type)
• students with learning and support plans automatically allowed extensions to coursework deadlines
• mitigating circumstances for longer extensions or one off events (eg illness, bereavements)
• I'm aware of which students have support plans and the adjustments I need to make, but not the reasons for it (the full support plans are rightly confidential documents as they contain medical information)
• flexibility on spelling in coursework for dyslexic students
• flexibility on attendance based marks for disabled students, those with support plans, those with chronic illnesses, ND students etc
• re-running of assessment sessions for anyone unable to attended (eg illness, disability, ND etc)
• considering where to place students with support needs in oral assessments (eg first to help nerves, before break, after break, last so have extra time)
• communicating any changes early so ND, anxious students can prepare
• encouraging ND, anxious students to go and see assesment rooms ahead of timr
• ability to study part time
• exams and assessments spread out so not to overwhelm any student
• special considerations for exams and timed assessments eg extra time, scribe, small room, certain desk, take on a computer, reader etc

That's what I do as a lecturer. Then there's the additional support via welfare, the disability office, DSA etc.

Something I haven't seen mentioned is that some university staff will be ND, have chronic illnesses, be disabled etc. It's not fair to say we don't care and don't make any effort, in my experience lecturing staff really do.

It’s about academic work. Who else is she supposed to speak to about it?🤷🏼‍♀️

Academic

People saying 'lecturers emailing once a week to ask "are you ok?" is a quick and easy job,' apart from not understanding what a lecturer's role is, seem to think that this quick email will be the end of the matter. What about when the student emails back (though it has to be said the vast majority don't respond to such emails, which raises questions about the point of them, but ..... that's another issue)? What about when they reply with a lengthy set of concerns, contexts, questions, that we're not equipped to deal with, because we don't know the answers? These 'quick check-ins' are presumably not intended to be an end in themselves, so where does the time come from, when we receive the emails in response?

But what is the tutor checking in about? Academic work? General wellbeing?

She won’t approach or initiate. I said it much earlier. She has social anxiety with regards to people she perceives as more superior to her. She is working on it and it is getting better. But she struggles to advocate for herself. But she will respond or ask for help if people approach her first. Otherwise she just struggles on silently.

Shes ADHD. All fairly normal for ADHD especially initiation. She’s bright, capable and determined. It’s just this one thing.

Hi @whatisgoingonandwhy just a reply in terms of your opening question, are you aware of UHI? And their course: https://www.uhi.ac.uk/en/courses/bsc-hons-psychology/ - online with in person 2 day induction and annual week long residential I think.