I have a son who has Aspergers and is having a miserable time at University, cannot organise himself at all. I'm afraid he will fail the first year, but what can I do.
He does get support, but it appears quite poor in quality and most of this term the support was off sick so none provided !!
Yes you do need to have a disability student allowance - the university should provide the services once there is a source of revenue, but universities do not have to give free support.
That said I know there are now problems. When the Disability Discrimination Act came about Universities responded because they faced the threat of prosecution for failure. Hardly any of that threat has materialised, and there is now a counter-trend of taking a calculated risk on failure. Also Universities have been making stringent cut-backs on support staff, and what often happens is you get entirely new appointments to less well-salaried posts, with a loss of continuity of experience.
A further factor is the social model of disability. A lot of universities have gone down the route of seeing not disability but persons "less able" such that this can be corrected by providing level playing field support: note-takers, extra time in exams, coloured paper hand-outs. This approach isn't autism friendly.
That said most universities are still doing fine, and there should be a corpus of in-house knowledge especially amongst lecturers and tutors. I cannot ask you to name the university in question, but there are some predictable failures amongst both new universities, and older red-brick unis with snobbery or attitude - the old selection thing.
I'm a retired lecturer who was also at the teaching end the disability coordinator, interfacing with student services so we gave the right support (and on the spectrum myself). If parents ask for a pre-meeting before the academic year starts, I would go along to give a teaching perspective of any problems that might arise. It doesn't sound like that has happened here.
I'm worried about this claim about a high drop out rate. They shouldn't be making such remarks, and they sound a thoroughly ignorant university. But there are certain truths to this. So I will try to explain the issues:
Once a student starts a course, it is a contract between the student and the university. The university cannot tell the parents anything personal unless the student signs a consent form, and even then it is tricky because of confidentiality rules. Student services may talk to parents, the tutors and lecturers cannot. So parents often don't know if their son/daughter is getting into difficulties.
Some people on the spectrum do not have the attributes necessary for academic study, or their difficulties are too great to be addressed by reasonable measures. University teaching is collective, with a small amount of 1 to 1, and is not interventionist like school. If a student doesn't turn up, or doesn't hand in work, he will get warnings but that's about it.
Some people on the spectrum will disagree with what's asked of them in assignments, or not see the point, and therefore do not do the assignments set. Also there is often a problem with the conventions of written english, or the ability to discuss evidence, and set things out the required way. It is a reality that some people on the spectrum just wont play by these rules.
There is at present no way of compromising the set curriculum for someone with a disability. This means some things a person on the spectrum cannot do, the university cannot make them exceptions.
If a student on the spectrum is able to do the work and meet the course requirements, there shouldn't be any barriers. But the common cause of dropping out is an actual reluctance to produce the work needed rather than a failure by the university. Parents do need to look at this before sending someone on the spectrum to university. Some people on the spectrum keep hitting barriers that are there as goals for assessment and cannot be alleviated.
The other caution I keep making on here, an aptitude for numbers or computing doesn't mean a degree in mathematics or computing is a wise choice. Mathematics is heavily theoretical - and that often proves difficult for people who think in numerals well - accountancy would be a better choice. Computing degrees require proficiency in ALL aspects, not just one thing the person is very good at. There is a high drop out rate from Mathematics and Computing simply because it isn't a wise choice
I can expand on other aspects, but will leave it at that for the moment.
Yes you do need to have a disability student allowance - the university should provide the services once there is a source of revenue, but universities do not have to give free support.
That said I know there are now problems. When the Disability Discrimination Act came about Universities responded because they faced the threat of prosecution for failure. Hardly any of that threat has materialised, and there is now a counter-trend of taking a calculated risk on failure. Also Universities have been making stringent cut-backs on support staff, and what often happens is you get entirely new appointments to less well-salaried posts, with a loss of continuity of experience.
A further factor is the social model of disability. A lot of universities have gone down the route of seeing not disability but persons "less able" such that this can be corrected by providing level playing field support: note-takers, extra time in exams, coloured paper hand-outs. This approach isn't autism friendly.
That said most universities are still doing fine, and there should be a corpus of in-house knowledge especially amongst lecturers and tutors. I cannot ask you to name the university in question, but there are some predictable failures amongst both new universities, and older red-brick unis with snobbery or attitude - the old selection thing.
I'm a retired lecturer who was also at the teaching end the disability coordinator, interfacing with student services so we gave the right support (and on the spectrum myself). If parents ask for a pre-meeting before the academic year starts, I would go along to give a teaching perspective of any problems that might arise. It doesn't sound like that has happened here.
I'm worried about this claim about a high drop out rate. They shouldn't be making such remarks, and they sound a thoroughly ignorant university. But there are certain truths to this. So I will try to explain the issues:
Once a student starts a course, it is a contract between the student and the university. The university cannot tell the parents anything personal unless the student signs a consent form, and even then it is tricky because of confidentiality rules. Student services may talk to parents, the tutors and lecturers cannot. So parents often don't know if their son/daughter is getting into difficulties.
Some people on the spectrum do not have the attributes necessary for academic study, or their difficulties are too great to be addressed by reasonable measures. University teaching is collective, with a small amount of 1 to 1, and is not interventionist like school. If a student doesn't turn up, or doesn't hand in work, he will get warnings but that's about it.
Some people on the spectrum will disagree with what's asked of them in assignments, or not see the point, and therefore do not do the assignments set. Also there is often a problem with the conventions of written english, or the ability to discuss evidence, and set things out the required way. It is a reality that some people on the spectrum just wont play by these rules.
There is at present no way of compromising the set curriculum for someone with a disability. This means some things a person on the spectrum cannot do, the university cannot make them exceptions.
If a student on the spectrum is able to do the work and meet the course requirements, there shouldn't be any barriers. But the common cause of dropping out is an actual reluctance to produce the work needed rather than a failure by the university. Parents do need to look at this before sending someone on the spectrum to university. Some people on the spectrum keep hitting barriers that are there as goals for assessment and cannot be alleviated.
The other caution I keep making on here, an aptitude for numbers or computing doesn't mean a degree in mathematics or computing is a wise choice. Mathematics is heavily theoretical - and that often proves difficult for people who think in numerals well - accountancy would be a better choice. Computing degrees require proficiency in ALL aspects, not just one thing the person is very good at. There is a high drop out rate from Mathematics and Computing simply because it isn't a wise choice
I can expand on other aspects, but will leave it at that for the moment.
