We want to make sure that individuals in our postgraduate research community who self-identify as neurodivergent or fall into one of the categories that comes under neurodivergence (for example, ADHD, Autism, Dyslexia and Dyspraxia) feel supported throughout their time at the University of Birmingham.
On this page you can find details of some of the resources available to help neurodivergent PGRs, as well as supervisors of neurodivergent PGRs. We have included some resources for disabled students, however we recognise that not all presentations of neurodivergence are a disability and that not all neurodivergent individuals identify as disabled.
Support for PGRs
The Student Disability Service can arrange course/study related reasonable adjustments and additional academic related support for students with a disability, including autistic spectrum conditions.
Disability and Mental Health Student’s Association (DAMSA) is a free-to-join group for all students who identify as having a disability. They aim to provide a safe and supportive network with events and resources to help you throughout your time at Birmingham.
PGRs who are also members of staff are welcome to join the Enabling Staff Network, which provides a forum for disabled staff to share their experiences and work in partnership with the University to improve services.
External resources
The Neurodiverse postgrad researchers network is a volunteer-run peer-support network which aims to help Neurodivergent postgraduate students and researchers to connect with each other, and to share resources and information that might be helpful.
Support for supervisors
See Student Disability Service: Information for Staff for helpful information on student disclosure, reasonable adjustments and supporting students.
As part of their Equality, Diversity & Inclusion Micro Sessions series, POD offer a short course on Neurodiversity. This course is just 10 minutes long and is designed to give an overview of the Neurodiversity aspect of diversity and inclusion.
External
Read the Times Higher Education article Supervising neurodiverse postgraduate researchers for advice for supervisors on tailoring the support and guidance you provide to neurodiverse postgraduate researchers, based on conversations with two autistic PGRs.
For advice on understanding disability and creating suitable environments for disabled PGRs, you may be interested in reading Supervising disabled and chronically ill PGRs from The Auditorium, a research culture and researcher development blog.
This case study from Vitae considers a researcher with aspergers syndrome and the suggested adjustments a supervisor could make in order to help them cope with the process of the viva: The Viva: supporting a researcher with aspergers case study