Across Europe, as McInnis (2004) has argued, Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) are becoming progressively more engaged with processes of inclusion as the increasingly diverse student body has begun to challenge more taken-for-granted approaches to ways of working in higher education (HE). In the UK, the Disability Discrimination Act, Part IV and more recently the Disability Equality Duty have impacted on HE, both in terms of strategic planning to ensure compliance, as well as in some cases, redefining how provision may be organised to better meet the needs of students. These developments are not however occurring in a vacuum, but within an increasingly challenging higher education arena of, for instance, quality audits and processes of commodification (Morley, 2003). Within this context, concerns about the student experience have also become more prominent. Questions surround support for disabled students as well as more generally for the wider student body, and the potential exists to think strategically about more inclusive policies and practices. This paper presents findings from a research project funded by the UK’s Higher Education Academy. The project aimed to explore and develop understandings of what might improve the experience of higher education for disabled students. The project explored some of the processes of becoming and being a disabled student, focusing on the social construction of student identity and the effects of this on the student experience. The approach was the social model of disability, which stresses the difference between individual impairment and the disabling barriers faced by persons with impairments (Barnes, Mercer and Shakespeare, 1999). Within the context of one HEI, the main aims of the project were to: • explore the educational and social experiences of disabled students; • identify ways in which their experiences may be improved; • examine how useful the category 'disabled student' is as a basis for targeting support. The research methods were mixed, drawing on quantitative analyses of the educational and social profiles of disabled students to provide a context for more qualitative analyses of students’ perspectives of their experiences of higher education. Two particular features of the research approach were the involvement of a group of students as co-researchers in one strand of the project (the aim being for the students to essentially become active agents of change) and an attempt to access the perspectives of students who do not declare disabled status (and thus remain, in the HEI’s terms, non-disabled). This paper focuses primarily on the main findings to emerge in relation to the students’ social and learning experiences of ‘being’ a disabled student in HE. Although largely positive, these experiences highlighted a number of challenges that currently face HEIs as well as ways in which the experience of HE may be improved for (disabled) students. For instance, the findings suggest that attitudinal and relational aspects of support for disabled students are of particular importance (it was not the support itself that was always of most importance, but the way in which that support was provided). In addition, findings point to the significance of understanding impairment as a continuum, rather than focusing on the either/or categorisation of ‘disabled/non-disabled student’. It is argued that rather than support for disabled students being solely understood in terms of individual packages of support, we need to also focus on supportive environments that could be of benefit to all students. (554 words)

The project was composed of three strands. Strand 1 explored the educational and social profiles of five entry cohorts, analysed in relation to demographic features. Strand 2 focused on student perspectives of their social and learning experiences, through a questionnaire survey and in-depth interviews. It also included a focus on the perspectives of late-declaring and non-declaring disabled students and students new to the HEI. Strand 3 involved disabled students as co-researchers, both data gathering and in dissemination.

The majority of respondents reported that overall their learning and social experiences of HE were positive. Some respondents reported that they were not happy with their learning experiences, others that they were not happy with their social experiences, and a small proportion of these respondents were unhappy with both learning and social experiences. Issues affecting degree of happiness with social and learning experiences tended to mainly relate to: (1) teaching and learning, (2) resources, (3) tutors and other students, and (4) the existence of informal as well as formal structures of academic support. Many of the negative experiences cited by disabled students were not found to relate specifically to impairment, but tended to be more general student concerns. Negative experiences related to impairment tended to result from the absence of, or delay in receiving support.