University Offer Refused Due to my Spoken Communication

I'm already a lecturer at university and a local college, the university I also mentor students one to one and in groups. The university have written a letter of support for my teaching abilities to Exeter university and I have a huge amount of recommendations on linkedin talking about my abilities in a very positive light. Exeter also marked my spoken communication as exceptional in the micro teach I was required to perform. So the spoken communication was purely during my interview including group which was marked as not as strong as other students.

This is exactly the case, I do have a huge amount of professional proof of my teaching abilities and also my spoken communication, so this should be easy to prove if necessary 

I don't have any other options as I'm a single mum and can't travel away for university. I am also a current lecturer at university, who have written to Exeter with a letter of support as an excellent teacher and a local college, with over 20 recommendations highlighting my teaching ability and communication on linked in, so I do have a lot of proof

Yes they observed me and I scored exceptional for my spoken communication when I had to perform a mini teach including interacting with my "students" and not as strong as others in the group interview. I've lodged a formal complaint after speaking to a Sen solicitor who looked at the case and said this is a blatant disregard of the Equality act. Natasha Richardson is a teacher with tourettes and has no issues being a teacher

Yes they observed me and I scored exceptional for my spoken communication when I had to perform a mini teach including interacting with my "students" and not as strong as others in the group interview. I've lodged a formal complaint after speaking to a Sen solicitor who looked at the case and said this is a blatant disregard of the Equality act

I'm sorry I lost my log in. I do need to have spoken communication. The interesting part though is that they have since given me a copy of my interview record which I scored exceptional for my spoken communication during the teaching part of the interview and it was not as strong as other during the group interview. As this was the only reasons given I've spoken to a solicitor and they have confirmed it's discrimination based on my protected characteristics so I've lodged a formal complaint. 

The thing is and what I don’t think many people would appreciate is it autistic people often do not feel comfortable moving away to study or work. And of course sometimes people have families children wives people who may be dependent on them who may not want to move.

if that’s his situation then this university might be his only option.

if you are already a lecturer then you must be a good talker. you should mention this and tell them to come to your lectures so they can evaluate your talking/lecturing themselves.

if not then refusal of seeing the evidence that you are a good talker means that they are stereotyping the asd by the common difficulty to talk and anxiety and are guilty of judging you by conditional stereotype and not your actual personal ability or condition.

its a tricky one because its english and in english subject at higher levels it would be very strict and require really perfect verbal english communications.

if its total english all across the board which any higher english would be then it would require good verbal skills.
if it was written english/english literature then you could call them out on discrimination.

Actually I agree. At least for humanity’s subjects like English / teaching. If it were a STEM course I’d think otherwise.

Peter - you may be right in terms of the law. My point is that it may be possible to force a university to register a student. The problem is that teaching involves subjective assessments of competence. If the assessor does not like the student's presentation and writes it up negatively, it is hard to argue. The Tribunal judge was not there, and the assessor says the presentation was not good enough, how do you prove otherwise on the balance of probabilities?

In purely pragmatic terms, I feel it might be better to find a university that is more neurodiversity aware. I have been in a situation where I have had a "marginal" student, and to be honest, I could have written my report up either a pass or a fail, and the university would accept my recommendation. All the Exam Board has is the assessor's report.

The way it’s been phrased makes it sound more like a fitness to learn than a fitness to teach concern. But even if it is a fitness to teach concern it’s quite difficult for them to make that argument if he is already teaching in a college adequately.

i’m no expert in ‘fitness to teach’ in regards to health but I did look up the relevant regulations and it talks about your ability to do the relevant activity not necessarily to do it to a high standard. so If the relevant activity would be teaching a lesson. And A hypothetical individual is already teaching adequately at a college I think they would have demonstrated they can teach a lesson whether or not they’re doing it to a high standard.

Not that that’s legal advice of course just an interesting aside about some reading I did today.

There are special provisions for university courses which lead to regulated professional qualifications. If a particular skill is deemed "core" to the job, it is permissible to discriminate. As an extreme example, I don't think anyone would want to be operated on by a brain surgeon with Parkinson's. This is a case where fine motor skills would be an absolute prerequisite.  If a particular skill - in this case communication - is listed as a core competence, it may be justified to require all students to meet the standard, irrespective of any extenuating disability. The rules are strict, and it is up to the university to justify its requirements by reference to the "fitness to practise" requirements of the regulator and the aims of the course in each instance.

Another approach is to check out the Society of Education and Training. [ https://set.et-foundation.co.uk/ ] If you have teaching qualifications for FE you may be entitled to QTS, or may be entitled to teach 14-plus in secondary schools with a FE qualification.  Or does the university where you teach offer PGCE you could get on through the staff route?

By all means, use the complaints process, but I wonder if this "prestigious" university will actually provide the accommodations or just the bare minimum required. You will face assessment at each teaching practice, and if the tutors are not neurodivergent aware you could face constant criticism. It is annoying, but as a tactic, it might be better to apply to another university that has a better track record on inclusion. It is nice to have your PGCE from a "prestigious" university, but when it comes to QTS any PGCE is the same as any other ... plus you have experience.

Just a thought ...

Just remember you have roughly 6 months in order to lodge a case with the court over this. After that it will be out of time. Six months from when they refuse you not six months from when negotiations end.

Ah brilliant thank you will try them

Ah yes good point, yes sorry I know you didn't I often come across as defensive when trying to prove a point. Thank you appreciate your insight

Actually I’ve just remembered you might try these guys https://www.equalityadvisoryservice.com/app/help I personally didn’t find them very helpful but in theory theyre  government endorsed

I really don’t know I doubt it unless you’re in some sort of union that maybe offers you free legal advice. My old union offered me free legal advice even if the advice was about something that happened outside of work like for example applying for another job. As far as I’m aware Nas doesn’t really support student applications into university. Anyone who knows better please correct me if I’m wrong.

i’m not accusing you of being a bad teacher far from it. i’m simply saying when you’re constructing a legal argument it’s often easier to argue that whatever impediment they think you have could be overcome than to argue but the impediment wouldn’t affect the situation as they assume although that is also a valid route of argument.

in law you often make ‘but if it did’ arguments. I don’t believe my disability impairs my ability to do X, but if it did here are three ways to help me do X.

that kind of thing.

After an interview day, one on one interview, a mini teach which they gave me excellent feedback on and a group task, I am also a mature student, so probably did come across as more confident than some of the others, but I would not say I was dominant if anything I was exceptionally nervous, and possibly chatted a bit to much in the one to one interview, but did pause several times to pull myself up and said would you like me to continue.