Support for disabled students

While we don’t support individual students, we are committed to working with universities, colleges and other organisations to improve disabled students’ experiences of higher education.  

We run the Disability in Higher Education Advisory Panel

The Disability in Higher Education Advisory Panel considers the experiences of disabled students, and draws on evidence to make recommendations to help shape our work.

We distribute funding

We distribute government funding to more than 330 universities and colleges. This includes funding to support activities that promote inclusion and remove barriers to participation and success for disabled students.

We require universities and colleges to have an access and participation plan

Access and participation plans are agreements that set out how universities and colleges will support disadvantaged groups to access, succeed in and progress from higher education.

Every university or college registered with us that charges above the basic tuition fee cap must have an access and participation plan.

Disability is one area that we ask universities and colleges to consider when writing their access and participation plan.

Universities and colleges should involve their students when they develop these plans. Student representatives can make sure that students input into these plans and that the institution does what it says it will.  

We collect data, insight and information

We collect data on student characteristics and student outcomes (whether students have continued or completed their students). The data can be broken down by disability, and is used by universities, colleges and others to improve students’ experiences and outcomes.

We also manage the annual National Student Survey (NSS), which gathers final year undergraduate students’ opinions on their institution and course. The data can be filtered by disability status and disability type. Universities and colleges use this data to improve their courses and facilities.

In July 2025, we published a blog looking at what the NSS can tell us about the experiences of disabled students.

In autumn 2025, we published an Insight brief that explored the data and evidence we have about the experiences of disabled students and a summary of a student survey and focus groups that we commissioned through an independent research organisation.