The Dyslexia Institute and AchieveAbility
working together to break new ground in Aimhigher
by Michelle Gammo-Felton. Published in the Dyslexia Review
Aimhigher is a Higher Education Funding Council for England (HEFCE) initiative which informs and encourages wider participation in HE. One of its stated aims is to help widen participation in UK higher education particularly amongst students from non-traditional backgrounds, minority groups and disabled persons.
AchieveAbility is a ground breaking national Aimhigher project, which aims to break down barriers to higher education for students with Specific Learning Difficulties (SpLDs).
The project seeks to improve access for pre-entry SpLD learners to HE through raising awareness of opportunities and support leading to successful qualifications and employment. Learners with SpLDs in schools and FE at level 3 who have not been included in Aimhigher outreach activities to date will be targeted for project activities.
The need for urgent action was highlighted in recent recommendations from the Government's National Disability Team, which found that SpLDs are the hardest conditions to identify - with learner assessment often coming late in the academic life of students. These learners are the highest percentage (around 70%) of disabled students in HE. Despite this these students have never before been targeted by Aimhigher initiatives. This is the first national Aimhigher project to deal with the progression of students with SpLD.
The University of Westminster is working in partnership with the Dyslexia Institute and the BDA, as well as Aimhigher regional coordinators, universities, colleges and voluntary sector agencies on a two-year Aimhigher project to raise awareness of SpLD in schools and colleges.
The £478,000 project, funded by HEFCE, will target four Aimhigher regions; London, South West, West Midlands, and Yorkshire and Humberside.
Strand two of the project is a National aspiration raising programme. SpLD learners often feel that there are too many barriers to Higher Education, and therefore progression is low for them. This could be due to a lack of understanding or knowledge about provisions for SpLD learners in Higher Education. It may also be due to the lack of positive role models.
The AchieveAbility project aims to fill this void by providing positive role models who can offer advice, understanding and encouragement to the SpLD learners. This will be carried out by delivering ambassador outreach activities. These activities are designed to raise awareness of the opportunities in Higher Education for year 12 SpLD learners in Schools and Colleges.
Ambassador students have been used in many universities, including the University of Westminster, to promote the advantages of HE. In this project, the ambassador students will themselves be SpLD HE students. Once trained, they will visit schools in their regions (under the direction of the local Aimhigher offices) and give informal talks to SpLD students on the reality of HE for people just like them.
In partnership with the Dyslexia Institute and the Aimhigher regions, the AchieveAbility project aims to recruit and train eighty Higher Education student ambassadors, across the four Aimhigher regions. The HE students will have personal experience of SpLD and progression on to Higher Education. Strand two of the project aims to inspire and support SpLD HE potential.
The intention of this strand is to recruit twenty SpLD students from each region by the end of March 2005, to begin outreach work in May 2005. These students will be based at various Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) across each of the Aimhigher regions. Working with the Aimhigher regional coordinators are the following institutions:
- Birmingham University
- Brunel University
- Huddersfield University
- Kings College London
- Leeds University
- Thames Valley University
- University of the Arts
- University of Central England
- University of the West of England
- University of Westminster
- Wolverhampton University
- Worcester College
The project office, Aimhigher coordinators, and key people in these institutions, such as widening participation officers, and disability officers, are working in partnership with HEIs in a very unique way to recruit the students.
Once the students have been recruited they will embark on a training programme which has been devised by the Dyslexia Institute in partnership with the Project Office. The Dyslexia Institute is currently in the process of collating a pack of information for the students to receive prior to their training sessions. SpLD students often need more time to digest information, so by sending this out two weeks before the training the student will have a chance to acquaint themselves with the content and to come with questions. The pack will contain information to enable the ambassador students to deliver informal presentations on areas such as: Why go to university?; What support can you expect for your SpLD?; What to expect from the Disabled Students? Allowance? (DSA). The ambassador students will be encouraged to personalise the presentations with their own experiences: this is the kind of support that I receive; this is what the DSA helps me with - as well as giving generalised information.
One of the challenges of the project for the Dyslexia Institute is how to enable the ambassador students to access all this information quickly and easily in order to give the presentations with confidence. They certainly won?t be able to remember all the information so it will need to be presented in a SpLD friendly format, accessible for quick reminders.
The training is unique in the UK as it is designed specifically for SpLD students, who will deliver outreach activities to SpLD learners. After the training the students will begin outreach work with at least 200 learners in Schools and Colleges in each of the four Aimhigher regions.
The Dyslexia Institute is also responsible for producing a CD-ROM which the ambassador students will have as a tool to assist them in their work. The CD will contain much of the information contained in the ambassador materials as well as case studies (with audio), further role models plus web site links for access to fuller detailed information. The DI is currently asking its HE students: What do you wish you had been told about university before you got here? The answer to that question is what needs to go on the CD.
The challenges for the CD are how to make a 16 year old with SpLD a) look at the CD in the first place and b) stay looking at it - as well as listening and reading from it. Again the information has to be instantly accessible and also engaging for this age group. And all within budget as well!
There has never before been such a unique national partnership between Higher Education, Aimhigher and the Voluntary sector to deliver outreach work which aims to raise aspirations amongst a key group of students. It is hoped that the project will make an immediate impact on the lives of the SpLD learners and SpLD HE students. The valuable contribution made by the Dyslexia Institute has helped make this possible.
There was a national conference on 4 March 2005, at which speakers from the key partners and other organisations discussed the issues faced by SpLD learners, and the barriers to Higher Education.
The project will feedback at a national conference due to be held in Spring 2006. The project is expected to inform the national debate on disability and help schools; colleges and universities comply effectively with the Special Needs and Disability Act 2001.
Michelle Gammo-Felton is Project Co-ordinator for the AchieveAbility project and is experienced in training and working with Ambassador Students.
