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Disabled students given access assurances
 Universities will have to comply with the code by next year |
Students with disabilities have been promised access to university facilities, in a code of practice published by the university standards watchdog.
The Quality Assurance Agency (QAA) says that it expects all universities in the United Kingdom to comply within a year with a code that requires equal access for disabled students to buildings or services.
Equal access should "not be additional, but a core element" of the services offered by universities, says the QAA.
This will include ensuring that disabled students have physical access to teaching facilities and services such as computer equipment, as well as providing specialist support that a particular disability might require.
"Disabled people have been under-represented in higher education and this code will play a valuable part in correcting that," says the QAA's Peter Williams.
"In future, institutions will want to take into account that the quality of their overall provision will be measured, in part, on how well they meet the expectations of this code."
The QAA monitors standards in higher education and will now look at whether universities provide parity of access to the disabled as part of its evaluation process.
The 'Code of Practice: Students with Disabilities' is to be the latest element in a comprehensive set of guidelines for managing universities, which will be completed by summer 2001.
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