Seeking feedback about university experiences, recommendations for schools that were supportive, thank you.

I have just switched from Northumbria to King's College London for a distance Master's degree. Part of it was the subject matter, part was the fact that I can actually get to KCL to use the library etc.. However, I did have some difficulty with the student support at Northumbria. I personally did not find them as supportive as the six other universities where I have taken courses, but your mileage may vary.  What is your son planning to study, and why shortlist those particular universities?

Forgive me for possibly stating the obvious, but is your son aware that a UK first degree is three years, and almost entirely about the one chosen subject?  There is much less emphasis on sport and extra-curricular activities are just that ... no academic credit for being in the choir or debating society. Having chosen a degree, it is almost impossible to change courses, unlike the USA where you get accepted into college and then have a choice of majors.  Hopefully, he will have taken some relevant AP classes, because year one of a UK first degree is equivalent to direct entry into year two of a US four-year degree.

The plus side is that you don't have to be a jock, join the marching band or whatever. There are no frat houses, often it is halls of residence for the first year, and maybe get a flat (apartment) to share with some friends after that. The drinking age is 18, and the Union Bar is often the centre of student social life.

I have heard that University of Kent is very autistic friendly with lots of autistic led societies and support groups.

 I hope this helps!

I know it’s not on the list but University of Cambridge is very autism friendly and there is a high proportion of neurodivergent students there. I would not only look into the support available but also other factors, like the size of city, living arrangements, commutes etc. This can make a huge difference as well. 

Well I can’t say that I’ve had any negative experiences or have any friends have told me about negative experiences with those specific universities I can say but there is a really huge gap between what universities are legally expected to do and what they actually do when making accommodations for disabled students.

universities very much rely on the fact that it’s very difficult to get any kind of justice in regards to disability discrimination without taking them to court and that young students are very intimidated by the prospect of taking that university to court while simultaneously studying at it.

there is in fact a separate adjudicator who is able to also address these disability discrimination cases, but many of the students do not use it because as disabled persons they feel quite vulnerable and intimidated standing up and accusing the  university and also because before they can do that they tend to have to go through a long winded internal complaints process before the adjudicator will look at the case.

TLDR in British universities things go wrong with disability provision far more often than they should and there are mechanisms to address this but they require you to fight your corner and be a little bit belligerent.

I cannot tell you anything specific about those unis. What I can do is give you this link

https://www.thestudentroom.co.uk/ 

Which is a forum commonly used by students studying in the uk and will have representatives from some of the unis as well as students which should help you look for more information about specific unis

I can also recommend that you look at or contact the disability department websites for each of those unis and see whether they offer what your son needs routinely or if it would need more effort