Information for External Assessors assessing Disabled Students coming to the University of Cumbria for Disabled Students Allowance
For an overview of the services we offer and approach, please see our Disability and Specific Learning Difficulty Pre-entry Information. See also University Baseline for Anticipatory Reasonable Adjustments which you may find useful. Key information is reproduced below.
The university offers support to students who are required to pay the first £200 of any computer costs. Please note that this is means tested, and uses the same systems as the student’s funding body. To access this support, the student needs to be enrolled with University and should be advised to contact the money advice team on arrival.
Information for the completion of the DSA QAG Assessment of Need Template
Information for Completion of Section A4
The university offers:
- where appropriate, teaching and learning preparatory resources for a specific teaching session on the Virtual Learning Environment in advance.
- a stock of digital recorders, including adapted recorders for visually impaired students, which may be borrowed on short term loan from the Library to record teaching sessions. All disabled students that require, as a reasonable adjustment, to record teaching and learning sessions, are required to contact the Library and have an individual action plan in place to permit recording. At this current time the University does not have lecture audio capture facilities in teaching and learning accommodation.
- a number of assistive work stations, mainly within library environments, that provide adjustable height desks, supportive seating, high-visibility key boards, tracker balls and some dual screens. All computers have read and write software installed alongside Windows 7 accessibility features.
- a PC and Window based operating environment for most courses, apart from those at Brampton Road e.g such as Graphic Design/Games Design which operate using a MAC environment. There are a number of MAC Labs on this site for use by students.
- agreement with Microsoft to download the student version of Microsoft Office. This is sufficient for most courses; where additional and specific course software is required, students are able to access this on campus e.g there are specialist IT suites on site for subjects such as radiography and psychology.
- For the main intake timetables are not generally published until the beginning of September of each academic year.
Section D2 Examination Support
The university provides in-house support for exams through the provision of extra time and the use of readers/scribes, and guidance from assessment centres on an individual student’s requirements is welcomed. Please ensure that this is clearly referenced.
Professional / Vocational Courses
Many of our courses are accredited by Professional, Statutory and Regulatory Bodies (PSRBs) and include an assessment of competencies and integral formal placements. Assessors are advised to read carefully all course information and learning outcomes when assessing students. Students are expected to be able to travel for between 60-90 minutes to a placement; if students require adjustments to these expectations, please advise them to contact us as soon as possible.
In addition, the university offers reasonable adjustments to enable and facilitate access to placements and placement learning; students will need to meet all professional competencies required by their professional bodies.
The university welcomes further generic details of support strategies that might assist with placement learning with the relevant section and section D.
Information on Non-Medical Help
The university is registered with DSA QAG to be a supplier of services to our students.
The university a multi-sited HEI with main campuses in Cumbria, Lancashire and London, in addition to our large number of collaborative partners delivering courses, open learning programmes and nationwide schools direct provision.
We offer direct support to our students through face-to-face appointments on site at the following campuses: Lancaster; Ambleside; Carlisle campuses e.g. Brampton Road and Fusehill Street. Appointments are also available through Skype, email and telephone (or any combination of these systems) for those without easy access to our campuses, during placements, or due to personal preference. Please ensure that you specify in the assessment report that support may be delivered remotely.
Support Bands
Band 1
Practical Support Assistance: Where students are studying practical courses such as Fine Arts and Science based subjects, they may have limited access to practical support assistance via the technical support associated with directly with these courses. This is usually sufficient for most students needing help with art installations and other specific tasks in preparation for exhibitions etc. Where a student is deemed to require practical support assistance at all times within such an environment, then we would expect to this to be part of the exemption process.
Accessing books in the library: Students who are unable to physically reach or retrieve books can access e-books via any internet connected device. With a 24 hour notice period, students can request that books are retrieved for them and made available for collection at the Library Information desk. Subject to student needs, and in line with copyright law, copies of learning resources in alternative formats, may be made available with sufficient notice.
Band 2
Enhanced Support Assistance: The university continues to operate an in-house service for support services previously available within this band. Wherever possible, we aim to promote independent access to teaching and learning sessions through alternative means such as digital recording and remote note-taking. For those students who may require additional support to attend and participate in teaching and learning sessions, assessors are invited to make non-prescriptive suggestions and guidance on the type of support that might benefit the student. Additionally, where exceptionally high levels of support are required and recommended, the university will consider this using the exceptional case process. Any generic guidance is welcomed if this is the case.
Band 3
Specialist Enabling Support: We can assist through our in-house services with transcribing teaching and learning materials.
Band 4
Specialist Access and Learning Facilitators: We offer a full range of specialist SpLD tuition and specialist mentoring services.
If you have any queries regarding our support services, please do get in touch.
Pricing
NMH University of Cumbria Costs
