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Universities in South East and South West

B'lanna Torres

My son is just about to start his GCSE's and wants to do a Science degree of some sort (Biochemist, Metallurgist and Nanoscientist are some of the careers that he seems suited to). He has HFAutism/Aspergers (more like Aspergers as he gets older) and I wonder if anyone with Aspergers could share their experiences of University. I'd be particularly interested if anyone studying Science has found a particular University very helpful.

  • Cheers longman and yeah, clearly something isn't working correctly with the timeout so we'll get it looked at asap.

  • I had only been writing ten minutes - I need to check spelling and go over points to be accurate.

    It is a good idea to visit possible universities. GCSE is a good time to start. Either use publicised open days/visit days or arrange to visit personally. In any case most universities will provide an opportunity to meet support staff and lecturers, with your son, in advance of starting and he can get a visit in advance to find his way round and see how it feels.

    I would advise parents to think about the following:

    Universities are building up banks of experience, but because students vary widely in their characteristics, there may not be enough knowledge about all manifestations. So it is good to ask how they might support such and such a situation. Support provisions are very good now, so things like buddying, organisational and timetable support, teaching room conditions are addressed. But there are things to consider especially on the academic side:

    Students usually have to complete the whole course. An aptitude for numbers doesn't mean someone can do pure mathematics. An aptitude for computer games or certain types of programming doesn't mean a student can do all a computing course. Ask to see details of course content and module content to see if there is anything your son wouldn't want to do. Also there isn't a lot of progress yet on varying the curriculum, and some people on the spectrum will not do parts of assignments they think are boring or silly - that can create problems.

    While support staff may be able to communicate with you about problems it is very difficult for university teaching staff to do so due to tight confidentiality rules. Ask what is possible here. Confidentiality and disclosure rules are making it difficult for universities to help in conventional ways.

    I'll leave it at that for the moment, and maybe try again if any further issues.

  • Hi longman,

    I've replied to your email. The timeout should be 45 minutes, which is set because it has to match the general accounts on the NAS website. I'm very sorry for the problems you've experienced with this. We hope it's something we can resolve soon.

    In the meantime the best I can suggest is that when composing a long reply it may be necessary to copy your message to notepad to avoid losing it if your account times out.

    I know that isn't ideal but we're doing the best we can to resolve these issues and hope you'll trying to understand this and bear with us.

  • I have tried to reply on this with helpful advice but have been timed out twice for "inactivity" mid text.  I shall try again when NAS advises me how to go about replying more than one paragraph.