Guest post from Marina Hristova - Students' Union President

In December the government announced its plans to cut the Disabled Students Allowance, a stream of funding that provides essential support and services to disabled students. From August, DSA will be cut by £30million and responsibility will fall on universities to provide extra support for nearly 70,000 students who already face additional physical and financial challenges.

The Students’ Union has been campaigning against the cuts to avoid the detrimental effect that they will have on our students’ access to their education.

We have been working with the University and other support services to ensure our students receive the right level of support and are not hindered by the cuts to DSA.

The Inclusive Student Experience Project Board have worked to provide a framework of guidance and advice for academic practice in teaching, learning and assessment. This will not only inform but also guide both academics and support service staff members.

A total of 10 work packages will be designed and signed off over the next couple of months and will be used by teaching staff from September 2016. Each of the work packages refers to a particular aspect of practice and aims to help all students regardless of their background.

This project was piloted during the last academic year and has received a lot of positive feedback from both students and staff. It is a fantastic approach to ensuring our students’ needs are recognised and their student experience is the best possible.

This project aims to provide all students with the opportunity to thrive during their studies. This will see all lectures uploaded to blackboard, reading lists which differentiate core reading from further reading will be made available and the facilitation of students’ understanding of terminology and formulae.  If you would like more information about this, or need support for your own learning, please get in touch!