Supporting disabled learners applying to university in Scotland

As part of the work we have done to make the process of applying to university clearer for applicants, including the update to the Guarantee of Fairness, Universities Scotland’s Admissions Policy Group has produced a new guide to support disabled learners applying to university.

This guide has been produced with input from stakeholders from across the sector and with support from Advance HE, with the aim of helping disabled applicants better navigate and understand the application process to university in Scotland. The guide recognises universities and higher education institutions across Scotland have different admissions processes and student support services, and how this can make it more difficult for disabled applicants to access the information they need.

In creating this guide we hope to answer the variety of questions disabled applicants may have on the admissions process, some raised in a blog by Lead Scotland: should they tell the university they were disabled? If they did, how would that information be used? Were they going to be discriminated against – not wanted even, because they had some kind of ‘deficit’? And would the university be able to support them in the same way their school had?

We want to reassure disabled applicants university is for them and the intention of this guide is to make the application process less daunting.