Nicola Crowe wins Student Experience Grant

Enhancing Support for Neurodivergent PGRs

In the first week of January, I received the exciting email that I was to be awarded a £2550 Student Experience Grant by the University of Edinburgh. 

I had submitted my application back in November, proposing a research project focused on exploring – and combatting – the unique challenges faced by neurodivergent postgraduate research (PGR) students. 

By drawing on students’ lived experiences and collaborating with staff to evaluate existing University support, this project will culminate in a digital support resource, produced with and for neurodivergent PGR students.

But why is this research project important?

UK universities are increasingly prioritising disability as a central component of Equality, Diversity, and Inclusion within their institutions. Disability support has expanded over recent years, and I have personally benefitted from this in multiple ways – having received my own autism diagnosis due to the support provided during my Master’s, and researched the state of careers support for disabled students during an internship.

Beyond offering individual study adjustments – such as assistive technology or extra time for assignments – universities are striving towards more inclusive teaching practices, and recent research has explored key barriers and facilitators for the success of disabled students. 

Even within the University of Edinburgh, effort is being made to promote accessible research cultures – with the current ‘Who Cares?’ research project exploring how a focus on care and inclusivity could benefit the University’s academic staff.

However, disabled PGR students – not fitting neatly into the category of student or staff – have largely been excluded from these discussions. 

PGR study poses challenges for all students, yet its unstructured and independent nature generally clashes with the accessibility adjustments that are typically offered to disabled students. While this lack of comprehensive support affects all disabled student, certain groups – namely neurodivergent students – are particularly in need of tailored support.

Neurodivergent conditions – like autism, ADHD, and dyslexia – result in ways of thinking that differ from the norm. This can result in executive function, sensory, and communication difficulties when neurodivergent people are faced with environments that assume these ‘neurotypical’ ways of thinking and doing.

Self-led, reading-intensive, and dependent on building strong professional relationships, PGR study therefore presents unique challenges for neurodivergent students. 

While neurodiversity is a central aspect of disability support across universities, like other disabilities this work has predominantly focused on supporting taught students. Excluding a similar neurodivergent PGR project at the University of Warwick, which has not yet shared its results, there is also a lack of academic research on this topic. 

My research project therefore hopes to speak to this gap, and begin the process of understanding and responding to the needs of neurodivergent PGR students – both within the University of Edinburgh and across the UK.

So what am I planning to do? 

First and foremost, this project will start with a thorough review of relevant academic literature and University of Edinburgh support – an activity which will also give me the time to go through the necessary ethical approval processes.

Following this background research, I will then interview neurodivergent students to explore their experiences of PGR study, focusing on the key barriers and facilitators to their wellbeing and participation. Feedback sessions will be held with academic and support staff to reflect on these interview findings and evaluate the effectiveness of existing University support.

The crux of the project will be the co-production event, which I hope to hold towards the end of summer. At this event, neurodivergent PGR students will come together with myself and an artist to review project findings and plan the digital support resource. 

This resource will ideally be published and disseminated in early autumn to coincide with the new academic year.

As well as raising awareness of the neurodivergent PGR experience and enhancing the support available to these students at the University, I hope that this project will help to empower neurodivergent students to advocate for their support needs – even at times when the required support is not yet available. I also believe that this project could be an excellent catalyst for further staff and student collaboration around disability inclusion in the future.