Student disability, mental health and wellbeing policy

The University provides support to disabled students in line with duties and responsibilities outlined within The Equality Act 2010 to protect from discrimination. This includes making reasonable adjustments to i) provision, criteria or practice, ii) physical features, iii) auxiliary aids or services to ensure disabled students are not at a disadvantage in comparison to their non-disabled peers.

The Equality Act 2010 defines a disability as a long-term physical or mental health condition — which has lasted, or is likely to last, 12 months or more — and which has a substantial and adverse effect on someone’s ability to undertake normal day-to-day activities. For students, their normal day-to-day activities include studying.

In determining what is reasonable in each student case, various factors will be considered including but not limited to: effectiveness in overcoming the disadvantage; extent to which it is practicable; effect of disability; financial commitment to make the adjustment; health and safety requirements (The Equality Act does not override health and safety requirements).

1. As far as possible, teaching and assessment practice should be inclusive rather than individual disability-related needs being met through retrospective reasonable adjustments.  
2. Adjustments will typically be made for students who the University is aware have a disability (or long term mental or physical health condition) in line with the definitions in the Equality Act 2010.   
3. Short term adjustments may be provided to non-disabled students experiencing difficult life events where these will support students to access their studies and prevent longer term potential impact on their mental or physical health.  
4. Adjustments must be provided where a disabled student (as defined under 2.) will otherwise experience substantial disadvantage, except in the rare circumstances in which a competence standard would be compromised. 
5. It is the whole University’s responsibility to provide appropriate adjustments in a timely way; responsibility does not lie solely with Student Wellbeing and Inclusivity or with the academic School.   
6. Information on disability diagnosis will therefore be shared with relevant staff who have responsibilities towards students unless the student specifically requests limiting the sharing of their information during discussions with SWAI.  
7. Adjustments must be effective at removing the substantial disadvantage but should not give the student an advantage over students who do not receive the adjustment.  
8. Adjustments requested by a student will be considered carefully but the final decision on whether an adjustment is reasonable will lie with the University.  

All adjustments will be kept under review to ensure alignment with the student’s studies, any changes in their disability or health condition and evidence of their effectiveness. 

SWAI work with external partners to deliver support and targeted events for students as an enhancement to the in-house provision within SWAI. These are listed on our External Partner website here.

SWAI also work with internal partners across the University to enhance provision and the student experience including, but not limited to, Loughborough Student Union’s Disability Support Network, Para and Disability Support, Pilkington Library, Student Accommodation Centre, AccessAble, Estates and Facilities Management, University Course Admissions  

SWAI encourages all eligible students to apply for Disabled Students Allowance to access funding for targeted support and technology alongside University support.

Applicants are encouraged to share their circumstances with Student Services online here in the Disability and Health Portal as early as possible to help ensure support can be arranged in time for studies to begin. This forms part of our Anticipatory Duty within the Equality Act 2010.

Students can share information with SWAI about their disability, mental health and/or wellbeing circumstances at any point during their time at University. The Health, Wellbeing and Disability online form is the central point of access into SWAI and is screened at least twice per working day by a senior SWAI staff member.

The Student Services Privacy Notice, available online here, outlines what personal data Student Services collect and reuse from other University systems, how we collect it, why we collect it, if and who we share it with, and for how long we will keep it.

The University recognises its responsibilities in preventing and addressing potential harms to children and vulnerable adults. We are committed to ensuring the safety, physical and emotional wellbeing of our students, apprentices, staff, research participants, research collaborators, athletes and visitors and to creating an environment conducive to living, study, learning and the advancement of knowledge. The full Safeguarding Policy is available online here

There are robust procedures and guidance for all staff involved in managing student risk based on three principles: identifying risk; escalating risk; managing risk. Policy and procedures are available for University staff online.

Incident support and reporting channels are available online here.

If academic performance has been impacted by circumstances outside of student control, students are encouraged to make the University aware of the situation as soon as possible. Further information about this can be found in the Student Handbook

As per information in the Student Handbook, students are encouraged to raise any complaint at the earliest opportunity with the staff member most closely involved with the matter of concern. The aim will be resolve quickly and informally to the satisfaction of all parties. If the matter is not resolved, students should contact the Head of Student Wellbeing and Inclusivity to discuss directly.