Towards ‘A Level Playing Field’: A Participatory Study of Autistic University Students’ Experiences with Academic Support in England

Abstract

It is a university’s responsibility to ensure their autistic students are supported academically. While current research gives us an indication of how universities provide this support, it reveals very little about the experiences that autistic students themselves have with such support. In this research, we took a participatory approach, via a collaboration between autistic and non-autistic staff and students, to examine the experiences that autistic students have with their academic support. Twenty-eight autistic students from across England completed an online survey, and content analysis of this data found that mentoring and changes to exam arrangements were the two most commonly reported supports. Nine autistic students from one English university then took part in the semi-structured interviews and, through reflexive thematic analysis of the data, three themes were generated. First, that students appreciate their academic supports; second that support is very dependent on staff involvement; and third that responsibility for academic support falls on the student. These findings demonstrate the academic supports that autistic students consider effective, as well as where they feel barriers still exist that prevents them from fully accessing their support.