Published on 12, July, 2020
Hi All, my son should be going into his 3rd year at Uni but failed the year and is now having to go through a Special Cases Committee to try to get them to let him re-do his 2nd year. He chose not to disclose his Aspergers and so has received no support from the university which is what both he and I feel is the reason for his not passing his 2nd year exams. At school he had a SEN and then ECHP so received support and did well, but the lack of support at Uni has left him floundering on his own.
We have given the Uni a copy of his original diagnosis as well as his last ECHP from 2019, but they are saying he also needs to provide a professional option from a GP relating to his condition and how it has impacted him over the past year. Not sure how they will do that, he hasn't seen any medical professionals in the last year and his GP is where we live not 200 miles away where his uni is. He is trying to contact them virtually though.
It feels to me that his autism is being used against him over and over by the university who I would have thought really ought to have noticed his needs even if he didn't articulate them. As he is an adult, I'm not even able to easily advocate for him. Has anyone been through anything similar, and do you have any advice?
Autism and related conditions are officially classed as disabilities, they are also known to be life-long. The university should be treating your son's autism in the same way as if a student had not disclosed any other disability, such as partial sightedness or epilepsy. No one gets remissions from autism, so clinical assessments from any time period should remain valid. I would argue that it is a condition that does not vary in its essentials from one year to the next.
Having said that, I think your son made a bad decision not to disclose, especially when he realised things were not going well for him. I can see why the university might not be overly sympathetic, as they will have accommodations in place to help autistic students. I am autistic, but was an undergraduate well before less overt forms of autism were diagnosed and I would have greatly benefitted from the sort of accommodations that my autistic daughter is now receiving at university.
Thanks for your comments Martin and Peter - it was continuous assessment and group work rather than a final exam that he was assessed on. I completely agree that he should have disclosed his autism and he is now in touch with the disability support team at his uni, so if he is able to continue, they will put a support plan in place for him.
He's got a phone call booked in with his GP this morning so hoping what they can provide will be sufficient along with the other information he's given for the committee to give him a second chance!
Another worrying thing that the Uni said to him was that some GP's are happy to provide letters of the type he needs, but others aren't. I think our GP will, but it is a ridiculous situation if some GP's won't provide something that could have such an impact.