My Experience as a Neurodivergent Student at Falmouth
18 March 2025
This article was written by Musical Theatre BA(Hons) student Ethan.
Starting university as a neurodivergent student can feel stressful, especially with the uncertainty of what to expect and what support may be available to you. In this blog, I will discuss my experience as a neurodivergent student and what support Falmouth offers.
Support Services
Falmouth offers a wide variety of support and access to services for students who need them. This includes:
Individual Learning Plan (ILP)
ILPs are documents that share the recommended reasonable adjustments for disabled students with their course team and other services within the university. These recommended adjustments are tailored to each student’s needs, to help make university life more manageable. Some of the adjustments that may be recommended include accommodation adaptations, being given access to slides and handouts before sessions, handouts printed on coloured paper, access to lecture recordings and additional exam or assessment adjustments.
Adjusted Deadlines are one of the primary assessment adjustments you may be offered if you have an ILP. These are in place to allow students with disabilities, specific learning differences and long-term health conditions additional time to complete their assessments and meet deadlines. This extension is usually up to 10 extra working days.
Additional support through Disabled Students’ Allowance (DSA)
The university can set up and provide additional support requested through your DSA needs assessment – this will generally be in the form of Non-Medical Helpers (NMHs). NMHs that you may get support from include a specialist study skills tutor and/or a specialist mentor. These NMHs will help you to identify any possible barriers and difficulties with learning and work with you to develop strategies to overcome them. You can also meet them on campus or remotely via Teams – whichever is more convenient.
Falmouth runs a Student Mentor scheme where existing students are matched to incoming students to help you settle into university life. They will be around to support you throughout your first year at Falmouth and can provide information, signpost you to other services within the university or have a chat if you’re experiencing any worries or concerns and could use a friendly face. Mentors also run several events throughout the year for their course departments, which are a great way to meet other students, especially if you’re nervous about socialising and meeting new people.
My Experience
Having an ILP in place has been a game-changer for me and my time at university so far! In workshops when we are given handouts, my lecturers either print them for me on blue paper or email them to me in advance so I can use them on my iPad and adjust the colours as needed. I have also been able to record lectures and seminars to refer back to, which has helped with my focus, concentration and processing difficulties.
I have accessed Adjusted Deadlines and used these for my written assessments when I needed extra time to complete my work. My Study Skills Tutor has also been invaluable in helping me with time management and organisation, breaking down my assessment briefs so I know exactly what they are asking of me and providing advice on academic writing and referencing.
In my first year, having a Student Mentor that I could speak to about any worries I had or have a coffee and a catch up with was so beneficial to me, especially when I was struggling with fitting in and making friends with my course mates. I knew there was always someone I could speak to and who would check in on me throughout the year. This actually led to me deciding to become a Student Mentor myself in my second year, as I knew how much the scheme benefited me, and I wanted to be able to give that to someone and use my experience to help support incoming students. I will be continuing as a Senior Mentor in my third year and will get to continue supporting new students in their university journey!
Final Tips
Here are my final tips for starting at Falmouth as a neurodivergent student:
- Make sure you apply for DSA and an ILP as early as possible to ensure your support and accommodation is arranged and ready for when you start.
- If you’re worried or nervous about socialising and finding likeminded people, look into the vast range of clubs and societies the university has to offer – you’re bound to find people with a common interest there!
- Reach out to your Student Mentor if you have any other worries or concerns - we're here for you throughout your first year to provide information and signpost to other services within the uni, and are always willing to have a chat when you need it.
If you have any other questions or concerns, please message me here through Unibuddy, and I’ll be more than happy to chat with you!
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