AHEAD Release Report on Disabled Students Engaged with Support Services in Higher Education in Ireland 2023/24

AHEAD are excited and pleased to announce the launch and publication of our figures on the numbers of disabled students engaged with Disability Support Services (DSS) in all publicly funded Higher Education Institutions (HEI) in Ireland for the academic year 2023/24. This research is undertaken annually and contains the only institutionally verified statistics regarding the engagement of disabled students with Irish HE support services. AHEAD have been tracking this data since 1993 (annually since 2008/09) and our Reports benchmark past findings to enable a longitudinal overview of disability in HE through the dual lenses of fields of study and category of disability.  

Unlike the HEA, who gather their data using the Equal Access Survey (submitted by approx. 75% of the student body at point of entry to HE[1]), the methodology employed by the Team is developed in partnership with responding HEI Support Services. Importantly, comparing these datasets allows us to estimate the cohort size of disabled students who do not disclose disability to HEIs, a key finding that is examined in this Report.

The Report includes general statistics on the numbers of disabled students as well as breakdown by disability profile, fields of study, exam accommodations, a postgraduate/undergraduate breakdown and much more! Every year, the AHEAD team aim to make the Report more comprehensive and aligned with policy and budgetary change and relevant to both students and stakeholders. The statistics and findings are also used to underpin AHEAD practices and activities moving forward to help us work with and for disabled students and graduates to create more inclusive and empowering environments in tertiary education. Some changes put forward by responding disability support and access staff in the Report for 2023/24 include:

• An analysis of DARE students registered with services for 23/24.
• We now include Intellectual Disability as a standalone disability category.
• The qualitative section of the Report sought opinion from DSS members on aspects of both the DARE programme and the Fund for Students with Disabilities.

Drawing from this Report, there are now 22,519 students registered with DSS in their HEI or 8% of the total student body, which represents an 8.6% increase when benchmarked against data from the academic year 2022/23.

Other Key Findings Include:

• 364% rise in number of disabled students registering for support in the last 15 years.
• A significant cohort of students do not register for disability support services in their HEI (Non-disclosure levels remain high).
• Almost 1 in 8 students registered with services not eligible for the Fund for Students with Disabilities (FSD).
• Specific Learning Difficulties remains the most common category of disability, with 38.8% of all students disclosing disability being part of this cohort.
• Over 90% of disabled students were recommended exam accommodations as part of their needs assessment.
• Postgraduate participation rate rising steadily, but disabled students remain significantly underrepresented in postgraduate study at only 3.3% (n=3,007) of all postgraduate students (in comparison with 9.3% (n=23,512) of all undergraduate students).