Autistic students

Key things to do when you apply

You can tell us about your autistic spectrum condition (ASC) at any time, but the sooner you do, the better we will be able to support you. If you indicate in your application that you have an ASC, we will contact you to discuss your needs when you are offered a place.

To qualify for ongoing support, your condition must have a significant effect on your ability to carry out daily tasks such as attending seminars and lectures, memory and concentration. You will need to provide evidence of this from your doctor or psychiatrist to access support.

If you do not feel comfortable telling us about it in your application, please contact us in confidence so that we can make sure you get the support you need. Although support from a Learning Support Coordinator can be provided confidentially, this will limit the adjustments we can make to the learning process.

What support is available?

You will have a Learning Support Coordinator (LSC) who will be available throughout your course to help you and your department. They will:

• work with you to explore what impact your disability might have within the context of your academic course so that support can be tailored to your needs.
• issue a Learning Support Plan (LSP) to outline any adjustments required for your teaching or assessment methods (e.g. extra time)
• offer advice and support when applying for Disabled Students' Allowance or other disability-related funding
• help to set up support such as specialist mentoring, study skills tuition, assistive technology training and sign language interpreting
• provide disability support advice to ease the transition to student life, signposting to other university services where appropriate.

Where possible, usually before you start your course, you will be offered an advance meeting with your LSC. This meeting gives you a chance to discuss your specific requirements in relation to the course and the induction week timetables.

This meeting will help you to:

• understand how support is organised for you
• understand who is here to help you, and what you need to do
• learn where to get personal care support from external agencies (including Social Services) if you need it.

What are my accommodation options?

Our halls of residence are not warden controlled, but they do have 24-hour security staff and residential advisers on site. Halls of residence can be quite lively, which might not suit you if you need a very quiet living space.

We have a limited number of ‘quieter’ flats available for ASC students if you feel this might help.

We can’t guarantee you a place in halls but we will carefully assess your application taking your condition into account.

You will need to provide a letter from your doctor or medical practitioner which sets out the reasons you need a university residence place, and a supporting letter from you explaining how your condition affects your day-to-day activities.

We can help you to find suitable properties to rent if you prefer to live privately.

Can I get extra financial support?

For UK (home) students

If you are a UK (home) student, you could be eligible to apply for Disabled Students' Allowances (DSAs) to help you pay for extra costs incurred on your course as a result of your disability.

The DSAs can help to pay for things such as travel, a note-taker or reader, study skills help, specialist equipment and other course-related costs. The support you are eligible to receive depends on your disability and not on your household income.

If you receive specialist equipment (e.g. a laptop, software etc) through DSAs, you will be required to pay the first £200 of this cost, but the university's DSA Reimbursement Fund can assist students whose household income is £25,000pa or less.

The application process for DSAs can take four or five months so it is important that you apply as soon as possible.

See the gov.uk website for more information on DSAs.

This website gives further information on applying for DSA.

If you give consent to share DSA information with University of Brighton, we can help you to set up support.

Healthcare courses

The application process for most healthcare courses is through Student Finance England, as above. However, there are a number of exceptions, where students should instead apply for the NHS Bursary Disabled Students Allowance. This works in a similar manner to the regular DSA but acts as a separate scheme. The courses that follow the NHS Bursary route are:

• Medical students in your 4th year and 5th year (if you intercalated) or 5th year (if you didn't intercalate)
• Social Work MSc students

If you are unsure which route to follow, please contact our team and we will try to help.

For students from other countries

If you are not from the UK you will not be eligible to receive the Disabled Students’ Allowances. However, we will do everything we can to support you and help you find funding to pay for equipment and support workers.

To help with this process, please investigate the following options before starting at Brighton:

• If you have a sponsor, ask if they can contribute money to cover disability-related expenses. Some scholarships offer funding to cover such costs.
• You may be eligible for a grant from your own government, so contact your education department to ask what support they can provide. We know that the Eire, Jersey and Guernsey, Sweden, Netherlands, and Thailand governments provide support, though others may also.
• Finally, you may be eligible for support from non-governmental organisations in your home country.

If additional funding is not available, we will work hard to meet your needs in the best way possible, so please get in touch as soon as you know you are coming so that we can begin to help you.