Does disclosing a chronic diseases on the uni application will make you disadvantaged

[Malgonia2001]

My son was diagnosed with chronic disease last year and although his grades are not bad he is sometimes unable to attend school or exam from the reasons beyond him. We just heard that he could disclose the chronic disease as a "mitigating circumstances" when applying to Uni. He already applied but still not heard from 3 unis so he could still update his application. We are a bit scared and we think that it might disadvantage him instead of endorsing. Anybody has any experience in that area maybe ?

If you search the university website for "contextual offer" or "widening participation" do they list disability or extenuating circumstances as a reason for a lower offer? Not all unis consider disability or illness.

If he is applying for uni in the UK this is your son's personal information which he can choose whether to disclose. There is no need for him to disclose this at application stage unless he feels it has affected his academic performance. He can chat to the admissions or recruitment teams for some advice, even if he hasn't had a response yet.

Once he arrives at University, he will go through the student registration process. All students are asked questions relating to disability and other personal details. Most universities will have a dedicated team like Student Support that use this information to ensure students get the right support in place. Once he has a place at university, it might be worthwhile contacting that team to find out what happens when he gets to uni. That will help take any worry away.

Also, there is Clearing as an option even if he doesn't get a place during the application process. Pick up the phone and contact universities to find out which degree programmes are accepting students. Sometimes it's possible to enter a university on one degree programme and then move to another option once you're there.

My son has a chronic condition that is having a big impact on his grades. We have told all the universities both on the UCAS form and the school emailed all his unis. This has resulted in lower offers.

He has also filled in the forms from the unis disability student support as he will have ongoing issues.

My daughter has chronic conditions - which she did list on UCAS - she has not had any reduced offers but her predicted grades were higher so maybe that's why. But listing her conditions did not affect her application - in fact she spoke to one disability department that explained the admin team does not see such private information.

My dd was diagnosed with a chronic illness after she submitted her ucas application. For the final six months of year 13 she only attended school on a part time basis. By the time she was diagnosed she had already firmed her first choice. Her head of sixth form did write to her firm choice with details of her diagnosis but as she made her offer it was a moot point. The uni did the her illness into account when allocating her accommodation and she is under the care of the disability team.

This is a difficult one. I won’t offer an opinion about disclosing at this stage because if things don’t work out for your DS it would be tempting to blame advice from MumsNet. I know it is a difficult situation and I sympathise.

I do suggest that DS makes full disclosure when he arrived to university, and signs up with the Office for Students with Disabilities ( whatever it is called - and yes, this includes chronic illness). Disclosing within his School means that the Student Support Office will be primed to help him with special measures as needed. The OSD can help him with those, and (if Mitigating Circumstances Panels are anything like the ones I’ve been on) advocate for him, if he is signed up and following tbeir advice.

No one will act intrusively, and all information will be held in strict confidence. Aside from any practical help DS may need, the value of doing this will only become apparent if and when DS needs to make Mit Circs application (s) because of his condition. Laying the groundwork upon arrival at university reduces that from a crisis to an inconvenience.

Best wishes to DS.

My dd has a chronic condition. We put it in the contextual bit.

Some uni’s reduced offers. Some didn’t. The popular ones didn’t.