Chamber and committees

The Scottish Government produces an online guide for students ‘Supporting You at University: A guide for people with additional support needs in Scotland’s universities’. This contains contact details for the National Autistic Society Scotland who can advise and support both students, and those staff working with them in universities.

While the Scottish Government does not publish specific national guidelines on supporting students with autism at university, universities are able to access specialist support and advice from the National Autistic Society Scotland to assist them in supporting students.

Universities receive additional funding from the Scottish Funding Council (SFC), in the form of the Disabled Students Premium, which enables them to make their institution and course provision more inclusive through reasonable adjustments for students with additional needs. A total of £2.8m funding was allocated to universities in academic year 2017-18. In addition students with autism are eligible to apply for the Disabled Student Allowance (DSA). DSA is a non-income assessed allowance to cover any extra costs or expenses a student might have while studying, which arise because of their disability or learning difficulty. In 2016-17, £7.85m of support was provided to students through DSA.

The Scottish Strategy for Autism (published 2011) outlined recommendations to ensure that progress is made across Scotland in delivering quality services for people with autism and their families and since the publication of the strategy, we have invested over £13.4 million to support and deliver quality services for people with autism and their families. Work is underway to refresh the strategy for the period 2018-2021, and the refreshed outcomes will be published in early 2018.