To answer your first question, we have historically funded the costs of international disabled students' support through our own budget; as budget holder I have conducted a needs assessment to try and gauge how much funding will be necessary.

One of the chief issues we have experienced and are experiencing at the moment is trying to ascertain what kind of human support is disability related versus what kind of support is based on the student's own experience of what they have had at home - basically, some of the students expect a kind of valet service which appears excessive to us, but is not unusual to some of the students we have at Queen Mary given their background.

In terms of what is reasonable cost-wise, I think other people at other HEIs have looked at the cost of the support compared to the tuition fees paid by the student. If the student is paying £10,000 per year but their support will cost three times that amount I think you'd have an argument that the student should contribute something financially. One for the lawyers, I imagine.

Queen Mary's latest strategic plan aims to double the numbers on non-EU students by 2015. I have asked for more funding to cope with the potential financial cost to our department should we have twice the number of international students to support. I don't know what the College's response will be, but it is a point worth making.

Simon

Caroline Irwin wrote:
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Apologies for cross posting

 

Dear all

 

I would be grateful for thoughts on the following.

 

We currently have four disabled international students.

 

One is severely visually impaired, for whom we have arranged a needs assessment. Notetaking alone comes to over £8,000 for the year which will take up most of the budget that has been set aside for international disabled students.

 

He has also been recommended equipment which totals £3884.80 without training. Altogether, the recommended support is likely to be in excess of £15,000.

 

My question is first of all, how are other institutions funding international students with a disability and also with students that require a high level of support, what level of funding is considered reasonable for the University to provide? For instance, does anybody ask the student/family to contribute? Is it reasonable to ask the student to purchase the equipment themselves when it would be provided through SFE if they were from the UK? Do other institutions work within a policy or are decisions made on a case-by-case basis? What is reasonable in such cases?

 

I would be grateful for any responses -- many thanks.

 

Caroline Irwin
Disability Advisory Service, Carrington Building,  University of Reading, Whiteknights, Reading RG6 6UA
0118 378 4249

 

Please note, my normal working days are Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays. If your enquiry is urgent, please e-mail [log in to unmask] and your enquiry will be passed to another adviser.

 



-- 
Simon Jarvis
Head of Disability & Dyslexia Service
Queen Mary University of London

Student and Campus Services
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