Neurodiverse students within higher education: initial thoughts from a collaborative project

An increasing number of neurodiverse students attend Higher Education and many continue with postgraduate and doctoral studies. This short paper explores current terms in the field of neurodiversity and presents the findings of a scoping review designed to inform the next stage of the project which is to consider the specific needs of neurodiverse doctoral students in relation to the Viva Voce examination. The authors identify some of the issues in addressing the needs of this group in relation to preferring a difference not a deficit model, the need for disclosure if a neurodiverse student requires specific support and the reluctance to disclose, by some. Knowing the type of neurodivergence that a diagnosis gives is a helpful signpost to guide advice, but if it is not available or not known, then having a universal means of ascertaining what adjustments might help a student at any point in their studies is likely to help all students who study within HE. The authors refer to using a Universal Design model as proposed by Sanger and Gleason (2020).