Coping at university - AS son aged 23

I'm always on about the lack of good up-to-date guidance about university courses for people on the spectrum. Too much guidance material written ten to fifteen years ago, when much less was known about how people would manage at university, is still in circulation. I've particularly expressed concern about NAS's reliance on Jamieson & Jamieson "Managing Asperger Syndrome at College and University" SEN Post 16 series - great book, very useful, but published in 2004, when universities had seen few AS students. Surely we have more collective knowledge now?

Picking a university reachable from home is probably the best option, and people shouldn't turn up their noses at the newer universities. These younger universities aren't so pressured to produce research papers, and staff are more involved with direct teaching. In a Russell Group the big names you are paying for seldom see any students - the teaching is done by junior lecturers and research students, and the pastoral care can often be dismal.

Having said that I would advise against restarting at a local university. If he has enough exemptions to enter at year 2 maybe, but students pulled back to repeating first year get too drawn into the time-wasting that goes on. He might be better to stay put.

Having to lengthen the course because of autism is not unusual. It is costly if they charge a lot, but I would advise considering any leaway in the time a student can take to complete. The object of the exercise is surely to get the maximum benefit from the experience, and there isn't a race to get into the job market - let's face it post-graduation support is pathetic for AS students and many don't get jobs. Not a nice state of affairs but no sign of any serious effort to improve it.

Usually lecturers cannot talk to parents, the contract is with the student. Student services may find ways round it, but essentially, having had everything run by parental intervention through school, parents are suddenly out of the frame, and well - it is easy not to appreciate the effort that has to be self-generated.

I do think more needs to be done to understand the study environment before starting a course. You've got to see the working environment in action (open days at weekends - empty lecture theatres, quiet corridors, quiet halls of residence, just don't help. Rooms full of computer terminals (complex noise and movement, proximity etc) and laboratories (smells, things suddenly happening, safety issues) can be really problemmatic. Not being strongly social can mean not getting the best seats in lecture theatres.

So I think you need to arrange to get a look at your son's studying environment. And is he fitting in at all? A group of flatmates might get each other up and ready. A loner might be left to sleep in. Many students keep on top of things just by following the crowd - if not socially successful he may not be getting the information.

Too often the support in universities is based on the social model and aims at "a level playing field" giving disabled students a piece of kit to give them equal chance. This doesn't work for people on the spectrum, who need some course outcome/curriculum adjustments. As no-one is pressing for this, universities have been slow to make such accommodations.

Hope this helps a bit, but ask for more if you want. I'm a retired university lecturer (a newish university) but was also a disability coordinator supporting a number of AS students. I'm four years retired now, but not as dated as some of the advice doing the rounds!

I'm always on about the lack of good up-to-date guidance about university courses for people on the spectrum. Too much guidance material written ten to fifteen years ago, when much less was known about how people would manage at university, is still in circulation. I've particularly expressed concern about NAS's reliance on Jamieson & Jamieson "Managing Asperger Syndrome at College and University" SEN Post 16 series - great book, very useful, but published in 2004, when universities had seen few AS students. Surely we have more collective knowledge now?

Picking a university reachable from home is probably the best option, and people shouldn't turn up their noses at the newer universities. These younger universities aren't so pressured to produce research papers, and staff are more involved with direct teaching. In a Russell Group the big names you are paying for seldom see any students - the teaching is done by junior lecturers and research students, and the pastoral care can often be dismal.

Having said that I would advise against restarting at a local university. If he has enough exemptions to enter at year 2 maybe, but students pulled back to repeating first year get too drawn into the time-wasting that goes on. He might be better to stay put.

Having to lengthen the course because of autism is not unusual. It is costly if they charge a lot, but I would advise considering any leaway in the time a student can take to complete. The object of the exercise is surely to get the maximum benefit from the experience, and there isn't a race to get into the job market - let's face it post-graduation support is pathetic for AS students and many don't get jobs. Not a nice state of affairs but no sign of any serious effort to improve it.

Usually lecturers cannot talk to parents, the contract is with the student. Student services may find ways round it, but essentially, having had everything run by parental intervention through school, parents are suddenly out of the frame, and well - it is easy not to appreciate the effort that has to be self-generated.

I do think more needs to be done to understand the study environment before starting a course. You've got to see the working environment in action (open days at weekends - empty lecture theatres, quiet corridors, quiet halls of residence, just don't help. Rooms full of computer terminals (complex noise and movement, proximity etc) and laboratories (smells, things suddenly happening, safety issues) can be really problemmatic. Not being strongly social can mean not getting the best seats in lecture theatres.

So I think you need to arrange to get a look at your son's studying environment. And is he fitting in at all? A group of flatmates might get each other up and ready. A loner might be left to sleep in. Many students keep on top of things just by following the crowd - if not socially successful he may not be getting the information.

Too often the support in universities is based on the social model and aims at "a level playing field" giving disabled students a piece of kit to give them equal chance. This doesn't work for people on the spectrum, who need some course outcome/curriculum adjustments. As no-one is pressing for this, universities have been slow to make such accommodations.

Hope this helps a bit, but ask for more if you want. I'm a retired university lecturer (a newish university) but was also a disability coordinator supporting a number of AS students. I'm four years retired now, but not as dated as some of the advice doing the rounds!