Abstract
The rise in numbers of dyslexic students in British universities during the 1990s has occurred against a backdrop of a more general widening access approach to HE. This has meant not simply an increase in numbers, but a change in the type of students entering HE. One positive outcome is a move away from former attitudes of 'sink or swim', and greater emphasis on support for learning. On the other hand, it has led to greater numbers of students needing additional support and making competing demands on limited resources, especially in universities which recruit heavily from 'non-traditional' entrants. One particular aspect of note is the rise of mature students with previously undiagnosed dyslexia entering Higher Education.
The advent of disability allowances has been key both to the rise in declared numbers of dyslexic students and as an instrument for encouraging the development of university support systems. Whilst the main types of support offered to dyslexic students in HE can be of great assistance, they are often inadequate for the university context, especially in the case of mature students who form the bulk of dyslexia referrals in some universities.
This paper raises important questions about the kind of preparation students are given before entering University. Is the appropriate advice given? Is previous support counter-productive in the real settings of university life? A number of practical suggestions will be made about how both school-leavers and mature students could be prepared for HE so that the transition is less stressful and the dyslexic person more likely to achieve a good degree.
The raised profile of dyslexia in Higher Education in Britain
The tern 'dyslexia' is used, in Britain, to refer to a broad syndrome of specific learning differences, including clusters of difficulties in writing, reading, number, symbol manipulation, information processing, automaticity, working memory, visual perceptual anomalies, motor skills and directionality (Sharma, 1986; Miles, 1993; Fawcett and Nicolson, 1994.) This differs from the more exclusive use of the word, in some countries, to refer to specific problems solely with reading. In Britain, dyslexia has been recognised as a disability since the 1970 Chronically Sick and Disabled Persons Act. Despite this, until the mid 1990s, dyslexia was largely hidden within Higher Education (HE). There was little advantage in students declaring dyslexia as a disability. Many feared, and not without reason, that they would be assumed to be unfit for Higher Education if their dyslexia were revealed. In the 1990s, however, there were several positive incentives which changed the dyslexia landscape significantly.
The first step which had a significant impact was the introduction of the Disabled Student Allowances (DSA). These are a set of government grants, made to individuals, for equipment, personal help and other support for disability within a higher education context. The availability of these allowances provided a basis on which some universities could begin to offer a support service to students with disabilities as well as offering a real incentive for students to come forward. Dyslexic students now account for at least 50% of the proportion of DSA awards offered in any year, and the number of claims for the DSA rises each year. Between 1994-1996 alone, there was a 9% increase in the number of dyslexic students entering HEIs in Britain (Singleton, 1999). However, figures quoted on disability incidence often refer only to those claiming the DSA or who declare a disability at enrolment. These significantly under-estimate the actual figures, as the overwhelming majority of students have not, for a variety of reasons, been eligible for the DSA in the past or came forward for assessment and support long after enrolment.
Earlier identification of specific learning difficulties in school-children and increased opportunities for specialist support in schools may also be having long-term effects upon the entry of dyslexic people into HE, (Singleton, 1999). However, this has not yet been fully documented. Tracking of entrants at the University of East London (UEL) has revealed only a small trickle of previously assessed dyslexic students entering from the schools sector. By far the largest increase of dyslexic students comes from mature students, assessed for the first time post entry. Wider access to HE for mature students has had significant effects for dyslexic people. Many of these students have entered HE after taking a dedicated one-year course, such as an 'Access to HE' course, that qualifies adults to enter university. In some instances, they have been accepted at university on the basis of relevant work and life experience. The return to education had been accompanied, for some, by a recognition that their previous study difficulties were based upon undetected dyslexic difficulties.
The other great spur to the rise in known dyslexics in HE over the last few years has come from HEFCE (Higher Education Funding Council for England) funded initiatives to widen participation and improve the quality of the experience of students with disabilities. Universities were invited to compete for project funding under three separate initiatives that spanned most of the decade (HEFCE, 1995, 1996a, 1996b, 1996c). As a result, there was a great expansion in university provision for dyslexia, with most universities making provisions for dyslexic students for the first time. Similar initiatives were undertaken in Scotland, by SHEFC, which has created a much more co-ordinated system of support for students in Scotland. Further, a higher profile was given to disability by the 1995 Disability Discrimination Act, as a result of which Higher Education Institutions, (HEIs), became required to produce Disability Statements; guidelines for these were issued by HEFCE (1998).
Government-led support for students with disabilities in HE has been given an additional boost by a number of recent changes. The report of the Dearing enquiry into HE (1997) made specific recommendations for targeting funding at universities which provide disability support; it also urged for the needs of students with disabilities to be included in new proposals for lecturer training (exec summary, 29 and recommendations 2 and 6). That funding, though still limited, will apply from 2000-1. Also in response to Dearing, the Quality Assurance Agency for Higher Education has issued a Code of Practice, (QAA, 1999), related to Students with Disabilities. This offers guidance and precepts on a wide range of issues relevant to students with disabilities, including dyslexia, which it expects to be operational from the Autumn, 2000. The Code requires universities to include consideration of disabilities in all of its planning and provision rather than offering only 'bolt-on' support. This brings HE support for disability more in line with the school and college sectors. The extension of disability legislation to cover education is imminent. Further good news for dyslexic students is that, from Autumn 2000, part-time students and post-graduate students will become eligible for individual disability allowances (DSA). This will have a significant impact upon the choices available to dyslexic students in terms of mode of study, reduced pressures to study full time, and opportunities to continue onto higher degrees.
Figures in the National Working Party report on dyslexia in HE suggest that dyslexic students under-perform in relation to their non-dyslexic peers, but can out-perform peers if appropriate support is in place (Singleton, 1999). This raises issues for HE about the effectiveness of its own support for students with dyslexia. However, what performance figures cannot reveal is the great personal toll of Higher Education study upon dyslexic students in terms of stress, health, mental health, social life and family life, especially when support is lacking or students are under-prepared. This impacts upon students especially in the first year, and particularly the first few weeks, a vulnerable time for all students but especially for those with disabilities. Statistics hide the pressures, misery and heart-ache experienced by individual students, especially those who do not fit neatly into funding categories for support for dyslexia. External funding is still the basis of most HE disability support, and a high proportion of dyslexic students have, for a number of reasons, been ineligible for that funding. In the past this included part-time and post-graduate students, international students including EU students, those who originally began their course as an overseas student but who now have British residency (even if the course was begun at a different university and many years ago), late referrals, those whose claims were rejected by local education authorities, those who did do not want to have an assessment, those taking a second under-graduate degree, and a variety of 'special cases'. Most of these categories still are ineligible (part-time and post-graduate 'home' students are now eligible.)
Universities still have some way to go in order to create environments where dyslexic students' needs are met seamlessly as part of the provision open to all. The QAA requirement for HEs to offer support for disability irrespective of funding is not likely to address this satisfactorily as a large proportion of dyslexic students, especially those from non-traditional backgrounds, cannot or do not want to be assessed, or refer too late for assessment or have contradictory assessments. There are students on the 'mild' end of the disability spectrum who still may be greatly in need of support because of life-time failure to have those 'mild' needs addressed. There are a great many students on the broad dyslexia spectrum who may not have their needs met unless a 'spectrum-based' kind of service is in place - which is quite rare in British universities. Others present anomalies of one kind or another. Silver, Bourke and Strehorn, (1998), proposed that learning contexts should automatically include provisions which students with disabilities require, so that individuals do not have to make specific or 'special' requests for them. It is unlikely that universities would adopt this notion wholesale. For example, it is doubtful universities will move to a position of open availability of additional examination time or alternatives to timed examination for all students, irrespective of disability. This might be a good idea from the point of view of all widening participation students and for all those used to word-processing rather than writing by hand, and not just for dyslexic students. However, universities are likely to cry 'academic standards' on this for a few years, at least. However, universities have taken some steps to meet the requirements of dyslexic students. For example, the difficulties dyslexic students (along with international, multi-lingual and mature students) commonly experience with note-making during lectures have been addressed in some ways by those lecturers who make their notes available on web pages or in course handbooks.
The range of support that could be offered in HE is addressed elsewhere (Cottrell 1996; Singleton, 1999; Stephens, 1996; Waterfield, 1998.) There is a balance to be struck between what all students need to do to accommodate themselves to the demands of HE, including through prior learning, and what a university must do to ensure that it meets students at their level of performance and expectation at entry (Cottrell, 2001). However, the difficulties experienced by dyslexic students could, in part, be alleviated if they knew what to expect from HE before arrival and were, in many cases, prepared in ways that would help them to survive some inevitable aspects of university life. Under-preparation for university entrance exacerbates the problems that students will experience from under-funding of support in HE, but which are not reducible to it. This paper will focus on how schools and Colleges of Further Education (FE), could help dyslexic students to prepare for HE. It is not, here, concerned with issues of entry qualification or base levels for all students entering HE from FE, but rather identifies, from the experiences of hundreds of students at the University of East London, what could have made their lives easier as dyslexic students.
Preparing students for transfer to HE : Marta's experience
It is easy for dyslexic students to become lost, as individuals, in a morass of statistics. As the largest disability category, they are often treated in an en-masse way, or generally grouped as just 'one of many', whereas students with other disabilities may be the only student with their particular disability on a course and referred to by name. For that reason, and to keep in mind the realities of dyslexia on the lives of individuals, the experiences of a recent student, Marta, will be tracked here in order to explore more general issues of transition to HE.
Marta was a mature student, of African-Caribbean descent, who entered the University of East London after completing an Access to Higher Education course. She was a single parent, whose child was already diagnosed as having moderate behavioural difficulties; he was later re-diagnosed as dyslexic. As the first generation of her family to enter HE, Marta had little idea of what to expect from university, was amazed to find herself there, and daunted at the prospect. Her serious dyslexic difficulties were compounded by gaps and long breaks in her education and by low self-esteem. Marta was encouraged by her Further Education College to contact the dyslexia support unit when she got to university but did not do so until several weeks into her course, having given herself time to settle and check that it was safe to reveal that she had difficulties. She then had to go through the usual set of procedures to establish whether she was eligible for dyslexia support: an appointment for an initial discussion, screening, a full assessment by an educational psychologist, debriefing, a needs assessment to put together a support package for her, and agreement by her Local Education Authority (which administers disability allowances locally), to finance the support package. Staff were appointed to offer individual, specialist, dyslexia study support; other staff were appointed to offer training in the use of specialist IT, to read texts aloud onto tape for her, and, in some cases, to scribe for her.
Marta was fortunate in that her LEA and her course, and together offered a great deal of support, including allowing her to extend her four-year degree over five years, taking a reduced number of options but on a full-time-status basis. Some LEAs and university courses refuse to do this. However, she still struggled a great deal, studying very long hours, as well as taking care of her child, maintaining paid employment and under-taking the work placements compulsory for her course. She was recommended a minimum of two hours of dyslexia study support a week but could not fit any more than that into her timetable. In effect, she often missed sessions because she simply did not have the time to attend. She reduced her specialist support to only one hour a week. Marta did eventually gain her degree. Moreover, she said that being at university 'transformed her life'. She learnt to argue her case, to liaise with officials on her own behalf and to become familiar with managing bureaucracy, to gain confidence in dealing with officials, to be an advocate for others, and she won an international work-placement which enabled her to study overseas for a year. She became very adept in using IT and in solving apparently intractable problems. In addition, she came to appreciate her own skills and competence in doing all of this.
Although she did gain a respectable 2.2. degree, she argued that she did not feel she was 'really ready' for HE work until she entered her third or fourth year. She wondered whether she could have achieved a higher degree classification if she had had more advance preparation for HE. She had been over-stressed, suffered migraines, asthma, fatigue, depression and blurred vision during the first few years of the course. She worked and studied such long hours that she rarely did anything else, which added to her depression. At that point, she said she wished she had had the option of a much longer Access route into HE rather than the (typical) nine months her course had lasted. How could Marta's Further Education College have prepared her for HE so that she had a happier, healthier and possibly more successful experience?
Longer pre-courses or part-time HE study
Marta felt she had entered university prematurely. As she had completed her Access course, she was entitled to enter university but she was not ready. In particular, she had not learnt how to cope with her dyslexia for advanced study. She and others would benefit from the availability of a wider range of courses than the usual year-long Access to HE course. Alternatively, she could have been offered a pre-course for a year or two before starting on her Access course, to develop skills that would have enabled her to be free of a scribe and reader earlier on her course. The majority of dyslexic students entering from Access courses onto degree courses at UEL require intense support for at least the first year, often needing more support than they can reasonably be expected to attend whilst following a full-time degree. This adds greatly to the pressure they experience.
Guidance on preparedness
In some cases, Further Education lecturers contact HEIs stating that their student will need several hours of support for language or numeracy a week. Similarly, students may arrive from school or college with psychological reports stating that the lecturer should go over their notes with them to ensure that the student understands the lecture and their reading. Unfortunately, it is not feasible to offer such support in HE. The lecturer is not employed on that basis nor does staffing allow it. From the student's perspective, there is simply not time in their tight schedules to fit in that much support. Of over 100 students who received support at UEL in the last four years, only two maintained support of more than one hour a week on any regular basis. Most students find it difficult to fit in a single hour of specialist additional support. In preparing students for HE, and offering them guidance on their readiness, teachers and lecturers need to be aware that if the student is only likely to take up one hour of support a week, they need to be at a level of preparedness that they can survive on that level of support. A part-time route may be preferable for some students, especially now that this will not debar them from claiming disability allowances. Students need realistic and informed guidance on their options and on the mode of study which would suit them best.
'Tasters' and realistic expectations
Those supporting dyslexic students wishing to go to university need to have a clear idea of the current HE context, advise students of this and prepare them for it. Students need to be braced for the shock of moving to teaching contexts where the group size may be of several hundreds rather than the small groups they are used to. On modular courses, they may be working in several such intakes with little continuity of peer group from one module to another nor from one term to the next. For dyslexic students who have survived by 'tagging along' with a group of peers, depending on them to find rooms, explain assignment titles, proof-read and generally receive informal assistance with course work, this can be very undermining of a survival strategy. They may not know anybody in their study groups. It is far from unusual to find students who have survived Further Education and school in this way, often without lecturers or teachers knowing of their difficulties. Once in HE, there may seem to be neither other students nor lecturers around to help in the ways to which they were accustomed. Lecturers in HE are often part-time or fractional, sometimes employed only for the few hours they are engaged in formal teaching. They may then disappear to teach at another institution: there may not be anyone there to offer guidance to a dyslexic student if a lecture is hard to understand. Although some courses have personal tutors to offer help, this is not common across the sector, (or even all departments within a university), and the understanding is usually that a student would see a lecturer for support one or twice a term briefly, not on a regular in-depth support basis and certainly not for specialist support.
Students thinking of entering HE would also benefit from being on campus, sitting in on a lecture, getting a feel of university life and taking this back to college to discuss in terms of strategy and emotional management. If students were prepared for the teaching and learning methods of university before they started they would have an easier transition. In particular, students need to be prepared for the reality that university teaching is heavily based upon reading and writing, however practical the course might sound. Simply by being braced for this and having strategies in place to address heavy reading loads effectively, would mean that students did not go through the shock they often experience. It is much harder to put these strategies into place once a student is already at HE: they do not have the time to develop a strategy before they need to be proficient in it.
Advance Diagnostic Assessment
It had been suggested to Marta that she seek out a dyslexia assessment once she arrived at university. This is often the advice given to students in FE, as the funding arrangements in FE mean that a psychological assessment may not be necessary in order for the student to receive support in FE itself. As psychological assessments are expensive, it seems to make sense to defer assessment until the student is at university where LEA requirements and exam boards often require a full Educational Psychologist assessment. Marta, like many FE students, arrived without any documentation at all. She had received 'some kind of test' from her support tutor (she believed, incorrectly, that the tutor was a psychologist) who had said she thought Marta was dyslexic. Marta took this to mean that she definitely was dyslexic. In her case, it was fortunate that the Educational Psychologist did find Marta to be dyslexic as she became eligible for a wide range of support
However, this is not always the case. As dyslexia support tutors are trained only to identify dyslexia they are not able to identify a range of complex conditions which may appear to be dyslexia. Misdiagnoses have included a range of conditions that needed their own kinds of intervention, including Asperger's syndrome, the effects of medication for diabetes, and even brain tumour. There are always some students every year who are found to have a general learning difficulty rather than a specific learning difficulty; for others, early education has led to ongoing difficulties which, in the short-term, appear similar to dyslexia. Behaviours attributed to a dyslexia taxonomy are often attributable to a combination of stress (sensitivity to environmental distracters), learned responses (not liking people to look over their shoulder when reading), or common incidence (glue ear, lateness in doing up shoelaces). A reversal, after a later assessment, of a newly established belief in dyslexia as the 'cause' of under-achievement at school ('I had thought I was just stupid but now I know it was dyslexia') has been quite damaging for a number of students. There are also students told that they are very 'bright' and 'capable of HE study' on the basis of performance in the Ravens' Progressive Matrices (1965) which only measures one type of 'intelligence' - and is not necessarily relevant to their chosen field of study.
It is traumatic for a student who has recently become accustomed to thinking they are dyslexic to be told they are not dyslexic, and not eligible for a computer and amended examination conditions which they were expecting on the basis of a disability. This is one argument in favour of educational assessment before the student enters HE. However, it is not the only one. Marta, despite 'knowing' she was dyslexic before coming to university, was strongly affected by being told this after a formal assessment and seeing it written in a report. This was not because the assessment itself was traumatic: she found it interesting. It was 'seeing it in black and white- knowing it for real.' This is not unusual. Many students go through a range of very different and sometimes extreme responses to assessment.
By the time Marta received her report from the psychologist, she was about to take her first exams - a very common time frame for those not assessed before they enter HE. Not only was her emotional distress injurious to her exam performance, the lateness of the referral meant she had missed the deadline for applying for special consideration for that set of examinations. Although universities may make every effort to accommodate a student's dyslexia, there are logistics in terms of room booking and appointing personnel which mean that it is very hard to meet a student's needs at the last moment. This impacts primarily on dyslexic students: most other students have evidence of their disability when they first enter university; dyslexic people often do not.
Moreover, where a student has a need for scribes or specialist IT for examinations, training and obtaining finance add to the time it takes to put the support into place. Moreover, if the student is awaiting financial support from Disability Allowances, some LEAs take up to 30 working days merely to address the application. If there is a follow-up enquiry, this can considerably lengthen the time it takes before the student receives any support. Universities may provide some interim support, but this is often a poor substitute for the in-depth, sustained specialist support which a student can receive through the DSA. If a student is to be offered a realistic chance of such support in their first or second term at university, they need to enter HE with an acceptable assessment.
Warning about variability in DSA awards
Students are often advised that they 'will' receive certain types of support in HE, because they are 'eligible' for the DSA. However, this is not a foregone conclusion. Eligibility can vary and LEAs vary a great deal in what they offer; it is better for students to be aware of this. Some LEAs offer set amounts for what they deem to be 'mild', moderate' or 'severe' dyslexia on their own criteria. Some require very specific differences in expected and actual reading ages. Others simply dismiss the educational psychologist's report if they feel that other factors seem to be at the basis of the difficulties rather than dyslexia. This is especially true of students with complex language and educational histories. What Stanovich (1986) refers to as the 'Matthew effect', that is, the likelihood of poor literacy having an effect upon overall cognitive performance, has been linked to socio-economic status (Siegal and Himel, 1998). Students from 'widening participation intakes and multi-lingual students are more likely to fall victim to the 'Matthew effect', showing a reduced cognitive performance overall so that specific difficulties may appear less pronounced. Some Local Education Authorities do not seem to take this into consideration when rejecting claims of students from lower socio-economic, multilingual, or mixed educational backgrounds, despite guidance and appeals from the educational psychologists who undertake the assessments.
Moreover, some LEAs are very prescriptive in what they will accept as a dyslexia assessment. Some London LEAs reject all assessments unless there is a pronounced ACID profile (a specific pattern of low scores on the WAIS-R intelligence test) and significant on-going literacy difficulties. Appeals to the DfEE tend to be unsuccessful, as the LEAs have the legal right to make this decision. This has continued into 2000, despite literature which casts doubt upon the diagnostic value of the ACID profile (Miller and Walker, 1981, Watkins et al, 1997). Although such students may be eligible for support from the university, they will not be eligible for support paid for by disability allowances - the main source of funding for HE support. Students would benefit from being advised on the stance of their LEA on dyslexia before they arrive at university.
Managing dyslexia : emotional aspects of dyslexia
There is great pressure on the small amount of time that students can find in HE for additional support. However, support tutors find that students like Marta can use this time, which is very much needed to address specific study issues, to manage emotional crises. Marta saw student counsellors, but could not contain her emotional needs within those sessions. Her anger and despair at either being dyslexic or her discovery of particular dyslexic mistakes, spilled over into study support and also into her relations with other students and university staff. Simply being at university brought out her underlying and long-held fears of being inadequate, of lacking 'intelligence', and even of 'feeling defective' through being dyslexic. Although this can be addressed by university counselling services and dyslexia support tutors, students would usually benefit from having acquired more skills in managing emotions, developing assertiveness and raising confidence and self-esteem before entering HE.
Indeed, in Marta's case, as in many others, the assessment processes she had been through had reinforced a negative self-image. A tutor who took her for several sessions in additional English support commented on her how she interspersed her contributions with statements and apologies such as 'I can't hold sequences of more than three items, I can't spell, I can't think in a linear way, I can't work in an auditory or visual way....' and so forth. She did not have a sense of the conditions under which she was able to spell, think linearly, hold sequences, or was already working in visual and auditory as well as kinaesthetic-tactile ways. She clung to descriptions of her dyslexia as if they were sacred, inscribed in stone, and as a rather unhelpful identity. In later years, Marta said she thought this was because she had to cement her new dyslexia identity in terms of symptoms, and had feared that if she did not adhere rigidly to the symptoms which 'meant dyslexia', then the identity, explanations of past failure, her new dyslexia peer group and her dyslexia support might all be taken away.
Dyslexic students can differ from other students who seek study and language support by the long list of 'I cant's' with which they preface their request for support. It is clear that this list refers back to the assessment process and to the kinds of questions used in dyslexia screening, such as references to shoelaces, reading aloud, right-left discrimination, reciting numbers backwards, restricted learning styles and such like all. The constant recital of this litany can be disconcerting to university staff: they can wonder why students' first engagement with them is to repeat all the things they cannot do. This may also be an indicator of how the student feels about dyslexia: as a negative list. Students need more guidance on how to represent their dyslexia to staff and employers in a more positive light. Students need support in working through what dyslexia is and what it means to them; they need to reach a point where they can make dyslexic errors with emotional detachment, and to have an awareness of what dyslexic people do achieve success.
Awareness of strengths and strategies
It follows from what was said above that it would help students if they arrived at university with a sense of their own strengths and also of the achievements of dyslexic people. Their attention could be drawn for example to arguments about elevated creativity in dyslexic people (Aaron, et al., 1988, Aaron and Guillemord, 1993; Everatt, 1997, Vail, 1990, Richardson and Stein, 1993; West, 1991, McLoughlin et al. 1994). Although the empirical evidence of, and reasons, for such creativity have been debated, (Argulewicz, Mealor, Richmond, 1979) perhaps the most important aspect is that people can succeed in a range of fields either despite, or because of, their dyslexia. Everatt and others (1999) argue that dyslexic adults show superior skills in picture production tasks, some verbally-based divergent thinking tasks and the Kirton Adaptation Innovation Inventory (Kirton, 1987). However, they found that this creativity superiority was not evident in children, suggesting that the creativity may have been developed through learning to manage dyslexia into adulthood. This is given further support by Gerber et al (1992) who argue, on the basis of in-depth interviews, that a divergent problem-solving approach is a 'learned creativity'. Marta certainly had no sense that dyslexia could be coupled with success - and even outstanding success, when she first entered HE; this severely affected her attitude to her work in the first year.
Study skills
Dyslexic students entering HE often refer to the support they received in FE as focusing on English language support, and especially spelling. Those from school refer to support they received in phonics. Spelling and phonics are rarely priorities at HE level, but students may not be aware of what other kinds of support they might need. Some entrants have had extensive support in developing assignments through tutors scribing for them. Once these students enter HE, they will have far more assignments to complete than they did in FE or school and it may not be feasible to work with scribes for all of these. Moreover, under examination conditions, students will need to be able to plan out their writing and organise their ideas for themselves. Much time is spent, in the early years in HE, training students in skills that they really need from day one, such as organisational skills, keeping a diary, filing notes, labelling notes and general self-management. Indeed, students with quite mild dyslexia have failed a year because they lacked skills to find the exam room alone (having arrived late when the room number was changed.) Organisational skills and self-management skills are generally the most essential skills a dyslexic person needs at a Higher Educational level; for this reason, UEL's specialist support sessions always begin with a focus on organisational skills.
Students may have been trained to use 'mind-maps', training in which seems to be fairly ubiquitous for dyslexia support, but they almost always lack training in how to convert mind-maps into linear sequences which assist the writing process. Students need ancillary skills such as those of organising information into hierarchies and concept categories, selecting information, organising information under headings, making skeleton summaries of their ideas, and sequencing ideas according to a 'line of reasoning' (Cottrell, 1999). In addition, basic practice in hand writing to build up muscles and key-boarding skills to build up typing speed would make students' lives a great deal easier. Students also would benefit from a consideration of what '1,500 words' looks like, and an understanding that it is manageable, as they can have quite unrealistic notions of what word requirements mean. Students would benefit from having, before they enter HE, a sense of which strategies would work for them and to have experimented with different ways of tackling study tasks, playing to their strengths. Peelo (1994) argues for the importance of offering a range of study approaches and strategies and letting students identify those most suitable to them.
Developed study habits
The ethos in HE, although more supportive than in the past, is still one that emphasises that students should be responsible for their learning - autonomous learners who can follow a course primarily by independent study. This places a high premium upon reading skills and habits. The majority of dyslexia referrals at UEL, when asked about their reading habits, claim to have read 5 or less books in the last five years. Marta had rarely read beyond a few paragraphs in any book since childhood and had very under-developed skills in the selection of appropriate texts and passages. Through her needs assessment, it was found that she could work more effectively if she combined a set of strategies: a mixture of reading texts enlarged onto tinted paper, having passages read back to her after they had been scanned through a computer, and listening to taped books. This was a very slow procedure, and there were added problems when readers did not complete the reading for her on time as there were limits to how long course-work deadlines could be extended. It would have made a great difference to Marta if she had been aware of these strategies before she began her course.
Psychologists' reports sometimes state, on the basis of IQ scores, that students are 'capable of study at a Higher Education level' because they have a strong cognitive profile. However, students can easily misunderstand this as meaning that they are ready for HE. In reality, the lack of a lifetime's practice in reading and writing can mean that it takes students time not only to develop these skills, but also to build up a knowledge and vocabulary base that makes reading easier. After two years at university, students almost always remark that their reading and writing has improved significantly through practice: it would be much less stressful for many students if they put in this practice before they arrived at university. If Marta had spent more time reading before entering HE, she would probably not have needed to depend upon readers in her earlier years, as she became less dependent on the help of others as her reading improved. Strategies such as paired reading and simple exposure to more reading would have prepared her better for university.
Moreover, although Marta had many ideas, she had never put these down on paper herself. Other students and a cousin had written up the course work that she needed to complete for her Access course. Once she arrived at university, the assignments were not of a sort that a relative who had not attended the course could produce. It is not unusual for dyslexic students entering HE to say that their work has been written up by others in a way that cannot be continued in HE. Marta had to begin to learn to write assignments once she arrived at university, which was very difficult to combine with her other course-work. More recently, students imagine that they will overcome this hurdle by using speech-to-text software, not realising that there are significant 'writerly' skills required apart from the physical act of writing.
Information Technology and Examinations
Once students enter HE, if they are eligible for Disabled Student Allowances, they may be given a grant for specialist equipment. This may include a computer to enable them to word-process work. It may be for software which enables them to hear text spoken aloud from the computer so they can hear their mistakes and correct them or for software which enables the student to compose assignments directly into the computer. All too frequently, students like Marta arrive at university having heard about the equipment that may be of use and expecting great things from it. They have rarely tried it out to see if it works in their particular case, nor to discover what are often significant drawbacks. Marta, for example, had been told at college that 'a computer and a scanner' might help her reading but did not know what this meant and had not had the opportunity to try the method. She did not realise how slow it can be and, as she had been relying on it as her 'miracle cure', she had not developed skills in reading that could have helped her more. It had not been explained to her, either, that she would need skills in careful selectivity in order to make most effective use of the more limited time available when reading via computers and human readers: reading by ear is much slower than reading by eye. Similarly, students may lay great score in composing directly from speech onto a computer without considering that it may not be feasible for universities to accommodate many students using this software under examination conditions: the number of rooms and invigilators required can be prohibitively expensive or unavailable.
However, as so many students enter HE with very slow writing speeds and no key-boarding skills, 'needs assessment' staff of one sort or another are often forced to recommend scribes for exams. Again, there are skills needed to compose orally and to work with another person under examination conditions. Marta thought this would be easy as, being garrulous, she felt she had strong oral skills. However, she did not have skills in orally composing academic answers and was shocked to find that her written answers were better than her scribed answers. Many students, like Marta, coming from Access courses have not sat an examination successfully. Marta's Access course considered that it would be off-putting for students returning to study to be asked to sit an exam. This meant that Marta lacked the practice, study habits and strategies that could have helped her in her first set of examinations. She did not have any idea which range of strategies and IT would suit her best under examination conditions nor what alternatives might suit her. Dyslexic students, and mature students in general, would benefit from having had practice in writing by hand, developed key-board skills, awareness of their writing speed using both methods, and, if alternative assessment methods may be needed, training in these before they enter HE.
Conclusions
This paper argues that although Higher Education in Britain has seen rapid change over the last decade in attempting to meet the requirements of students with disabilities, including dyslexia, in Higher Education, the playing field for dyslexic students in HE is still not level. Dyslexia support is very uneven in the HE sector and rarely adequate to meet the needs of all dyslexic students. However, even if support in Higher Education were better resourced, as it may be under the new QAA Code of Practice, from the student's perspective, it is difficult to develop the skills they need to cope with HE whilst following a full time course. Even when universities can offer all the support that dyslexic students might need, students simply do not have the time to take this up. Difficulties faced by dyslexic students in HE are not caused only by a lack of appropriate support in HE. Transition issues also play an important part, and dyslexic students would benefit from advance preparation for university study in particular ways. In some cases, students may be better guided to follow a part-time route, especially if they need to work or care for dependants in addition to study. This is now a more viable route for those entitled to disability allowances.
It is possible for some students to have all their needs met in Higher Education: to receive several hours a week of individual support, training in study skills, English support if they wish, training in key-board skills and in using specialist equipment, training in working with scribes, and so forth. On the other hand, some students will still not be eligible for this support, and international students, in particular, are unlikely to receive extensive support. However, even when support is available, students find it very difficult to fit in support at the same time as studying for a degree. Moreover, funding arrangements in HE mean that students are unlikely to receive extensive support until late in their first semester. Students need to claim support before they arrive and have sufficient preparation to enable them to survive the first few weeks with little additional practical support. If they enter HE without appropriate documentation, this can delay significantly their chances of receiving support in time to ensure success.
Dyslexic people benefit from being encouraged to consider HE as a viable option, by having adequate documentation to assist with the transition from school or college to university, by a grounding in the nature of HE study and the realities for support and funding. It is of inestimable value to dyslexic students to have developed self confidence and a positive view of themselves as dyslexic people and as students, to have established study habits and dyslexia sensitive strategies as well as being literate in ordinary and specialist IT before entering HE. If schools and colleges can offer this to students, with appropriate support from universities in the transition process, it would make the experience of university much more positive, healthy and stress-free for dyslexic entrants.
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