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Planning for university

Hubbub

My son is 18, has aspergers and currently at a sixth form college. He is very scientific and 'mathy' but has struggled his whole life long with expressing himself with writing, and even the physical process of writing with pen and paper. His college lend him a laptop and he has extra time in exams.

As he would like to go on to university to study computer science and I would like to encourage him to reach his potential and find a niche in the adult world, we went to a university open day last week. I targeted the 'Student Support Accessibilty' Desk and they said for him to get any kind of support at (any) uni he needs to arrange an Educational Psychologist Assessment (EPA) and it was likely to cost us about £300, before going through other administrative hoops with the county council etc. to get all the right forms.

I was surprised that we have to pay at all, and so much for what I suppose is a diagnosis. He was diagnosed at 11 (going through our GP) and has had various special needs assistance through school.

Before I start the process of looking into all this (which I will do, and start saving up!) does anyone know if this is true about having to pay for this EPA ? Is help only available to those who can afford it?

Undecided

Parents

  • Assuming he is still considering university, to get the necessary support, as soon as possible i'd advise you to look into student finance and see what benefits he would be entitled to such as DSA (Disabled Students Allowance), I was in receipt of this allowance last year on my first year of university and received support from my university's centre for disability.

    As far as paying up front fees, the only things that were required was you had to complete a form including filling in details like proof of ID, evidence of disability and so on. If I remember correctly it took about 6 weeks to process from this time last year so that I got my support in place just in time.

    My support involved 1:1 mentoring, monthly progress reports with the disability officer and the DSA allowed me to refund my printing and photocopying costs.

    I guess you could say I coped well enough at my halls of residence, apart from the noisy distractions coming from outside and immature behaviour expected from the students who were 2 years younger than I am.

Reply

  • Assuming he is still considering university, to get the necessary support, as soon as possible i'd advise you to look into student finance and see what benefits he would be entitled to such as DSA (Disabled Students Allowance), I was in receipt of this allowance last year on my first year of university and received support from my university's centre for disability.

    As far as paying up front fees, the only things that were required was you had to complete a form including filling in details like proof of ID, evidence of disability and so on. If I remember correctly it took about 6 weeks to process from this time last year so that I got my support in place just in time.

    My support involved 1:1 mentoring, monthly progress reports with the disability officer and the DSA allowed me to refund my printing and photocopying costs.

    I guess you could say I coped well enough at my halls of residence, apart from the noisy distractions coming from outside and immature behaviour expected from the students who were 2 years younger than I am.

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