Autistic and university

1

i am a mature autistic student in my final year, and I chose a project for my dissertation and i am talking about how being autistic at university
impacts your mental health
now you have started at university are you recognised as being neurodivergent?
has the university made reasonable adjustments for you?
do you feel that you fit in?
is your uni fantastic

Reply 1

Kingston Sarah

Official Rep

9

Original post

by nix_31

i am a mature autistic student in my final year, and I chose a project for my dissertation and i am talking about how being autistic at university
impacts your mental health
now you have started at university are you recognised as being neurodivergent?
has the university made reasonable adjustments for you?
do you feel that you fit in?
is your uni fantastic

Hello,

If you're in need of a high volume of people answering your survey, I recommend you to email your university's disability service along with the research title and the questions and they'll work to circulate the survey to relevant students on the same university who are neurodivergent.

All the best
Sarah (Kingston Rep)

Reply 2

LJMUStudentReps

Official Rep

17

Hi there,

That sounds like a really interesting and important research project!

I’d recommend getting in touch with your Students’ Union, as they often have a president, officer, student representative or network that supports neurodivergent students. You could also ask any disability or inclusion societies if they’d be happy to share your survey with their members.

Notice boards can also be useful for finding participants, and some people contact their school’s admin unit to share a callout via email, though this depends on the university and its policies.

Hope that helps, and good luck with your research!

Megan (LJMU Rep)

Reply 3

greg654

1

Yeah uni recognised me pretty fast once I actually pushed for an assessment. The adjustments helped a lot. Quiet rooms for exams, extra time, and not being forced into group work all the time made a huge difference. I still don’t feel like I totally fit in socially but day to day stuff got way easier.

Reply 4

University of Salford Student Rep

Official Rep

13

Original post

by nix_31

i am a mature autistic student in my final year, and I chose a project for my dissertation and i am talking about how being autistic at university
impacts your mental health
now you have started at university are you recognised as being neurodivergent?
has the university made reasonable adjustments for you?
do you feel that you fit in?
is your uni fantastic

Hi there!

I'm an autistic/ADHD student at university and honestly I've had the best experience at the University of Salford!

In answer to your questions, I am recognised as being neurodivergent and have a number of reasonable adjustments in place after discussing my needs with the Disability Inclusion Service and creating a Reasonable Adjustment Plan. This gets distributed to all the necessary lecturers/teachers on my modules and they are mindful and respectful of my needs. I do feel like I fit in, but not because I have to be the same as everyone else and more because my uniqueness and individuality is celebrated and encouraged - I am accepted as I am and have been able to have lots of open dialogue around neurodivergence with the staff in my department over the years. I feel very fortunate to have found a university with such a welcoming attitude and have genuinely felt a huge amount of support.

It sounds like you've got an interesting dissertation idea and hopefully you're enjoying working on it. I'm also in the middle of a dissertation project for my BSc Psychology and Criminology degree! I'm sure you've had lots of explanation and guidance from your uni so far, but it could be good to check in with your dissertation supervisor about your plans for collecting data and recruiting participants. I know we have very rigorous processes for gaining ethical approval and how we approach participants so checking with them how you're going to be gathering data could be good 😊 you've had some fab suggestions on this feed too about places you can distribute any recruitment material!

Good luck with your project 🤞

Becky
University of Salford Student Rep

Autistic and university

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