Disabled students set to protest over cuts in support

Scores of disabled students are to demonstrate next week in protest at their university’s “discriminatory” decision to secretly introduce cuts to their support.

They say the University of Derby has removed the entitlement to support from many of the disabled students who started their studies in autumn 2024, but it has yet to issue a formal policy explaining its new rules.

The university appears to have told many disabled students starting undergraduate or masters degrees this year that they will no longer be entitled to reasonable adjustments such as extra time in exams or extensions to deadlines.

And campaigners say the university has also told students they will not receive support packages if they only have a single specific learning difficulty such as dyslexia, dyspraxia and dyscalculia.

Despite the concerns, there is still no clarity on the university’s policy on support for disabled students, and how it has changed.

The university – which is believed to be £120 million in debt – is using its commitment to Universal Design for Learning principles to justify its cuts to individual support, arguing that because it is committed to an inclusive learning environment there is less need for many individual packages of support.

This is allowing it to cut the number of individual support packages and save money, at a time when it is facing significant financial challenges.

There are also concerns about the university’s decision to introduce charges for its “Unibus” university bus service – which was previously free – which could have a major impact on disabled students, particularly those with mobility impairments.

The bus service connects the university’s halls of residence and teaching sites across Derby.

Disabled students at the university concerned about the changes have started the Independent Disabled Students Network (IDSN).

More than 60 disabled students – including some who have been forced to leave their course because of the lack of support – have raised concerns about the cuts with the network.

They say the university’s new policies are a clear breach of its duties to provide reasonable adjustments under the Equality Act and are damaging disabled students’ wellbeing, health and academic progress.

And they say the university’s response to the concerns has been marked by “delay, dismissal, or silence”.

A petition calling on the university to “reconsider and reverse this new discriminatory policy” has already secured more than 1,400 signatures, mostly from University of Derby students.

IDSN is set to lead a protest outside the main campus next Friday (20 June) during one of the university’s open days.

James Eames, disability officer for the University of Derby Students’ Union and founder of IDSN, told Disability News Service he started receiving emails from disabled students after he was appointed to the post.

Some of them had had their support cut after they had already started their course at Derby, he said.

Eames, a mental health nursing student who is autistic and has ADHD, said the extensions he had been allowed on assignments were the reason he had not had to repeat a year on his course while he was having to cope with repeated shortages of ADHD medication.

He said: “Almost all of the students this is affecting are coming straight out of school.

“What the university is teaching them is that they shouldn’t stand up for themselves, they don’t deserve equal opportunity and equal access, and they won’t be listened to if they raise concerns, and those lessons are going to stay with them.

“Some of the lessons can’t be unlearned when it’s drilled into people that, at any point, whether it’s your education provider, workplace, or Capita, they can just decide you no longer have access to the support, you no longer have access to the service, and no matter what you do that won’t change.”

One disabled student, Ben White, was told before he started his degree that he would be given a week extra to write his essays, due to being autistic and having long-term mental distress.

When he started the course, he was told the support plan might look different, but it took him six months to discover that the extension had been removed before the start of the year.

He said: “So far, the new policy has meant disabled students at the University of Derby face further pressure, not less.

“We’re expected to spend our time arranging and attending extra meetings with staff who don’t know how to support us and have no options of how to even if they did.

“It’s shameful that a university is happy to put disabled students further behind in life.”

Another disabled student, Logan, who has just finished the first year of his degree, said he had been assured before starting the course by the student support team that the university would fully accommodate his needs as a student with multiple chronic conditions that cause pain, limit his mobility and cause fatigue, and who has experience of mental distress.

But the support he has experienced has been poor quality, and at the start of the academic year he learned the university would only consider allowing him extra time and extended deadlines if he started to struggle with his work.

He said the changes have had “a massive physical and mental effect”, including worsening fatigue, migraines and joint issues, which have led to worsening attendance.

And by April, the lack of support meant he was no longer able to live independently and had to leave student accommodation to live with his partner.

He said the bus changes would “reduce attendance by disabled students and may even contribute to widening the attainment gap between disabled and non-disabled students”, while he was dreading the personal impact as he cannot walk to university and cannot afford to pay for the bus.

In response to the concerns raised by its disabled students, the university said it provided “adjustments in line with our duties under the Equality Act as our learning and teaching is inclusive by design, and the requirements of the Equality Act are built into everything we do”.

It said it “sent information to new and current students between July and September 2024, and we held a Q&A Forum on the changes in February 2025, alongside the union of students, for students to voice concerns and ask questions”.

It insisted that it had not removed any support for its “students with disabilities” and that its students were “at the heart of everything we do”.

But it later said that the “removal of blanket extensions is only applicable to new students”.

And it said that “agreed extended deadlines may be applied for any student if the diagnosis, assistive technology, and disabled students’ allowance will not bridge the gap”.

Although it did not confirm that it was £120 million in debt, it said today that it had “not cut any services, in fact we have invested heavily in our disability services”, and that its debt was “a reflection of the strategic investment in our estate” and was “balanced by cash and investments totalling over £150 million”.

A spokesperson had said earlier: “Historically we applied a blanket approach whereas now we are improving our support and providing a bespoke service which aims to ensure each student has what they need to thrive.

“This ensures our students receive enhanced support, tailored in line with their individual needs.

“The option of providing extensions to deadlines or extra time in exams, remains for those students with a disability for whom this is an appropriate support mechanism.

“All of the changes introduced were co-designed with students and informed by best practice from across the sector.

“It is early days, but current data indicates that the change has been successful in delivering improved outcomes for students with a disability.”

She said the decision to re-introduce charges for the Unibus service was “developed following consultation with our students and… will help towards our environmental sustainability goals”, while the bus costs £2 a journey.

She said: “This change brings us in line with other universities and incentivises walking the short distances between campuses for those who are able.

“Disabled students may be entitled to support with travel via certain government benefits and can contact our disability advisers who can provide advice and guidance on how to access this.

“We are working with the Union of Students to ensure that all those in need of support understand what is available and how to access it.”

Picture: The University of Derby’s Kedleston Road campus. Picture by Google

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