New team to represent disabled students at Goldsmiths

Disabled students’ views and requirements are to be represented at Goldsmiths, University of London by a team of dedicated student officers funded by a £266,000 grant.

The Departmental Disabled Student Co-ordinators (DDCS) will help improve provision for disabled students at the university.

The team of 20 DDSCs will work to make a positive impact on their programme of study by representing the views of their fellow students.

They will also explore department provision for disabled students and report to the Inclusion Working Group set up in response to changes in Disabled Students’ Allowances (DSA).

The new representatives will also report to the annual DSC event in March 2017.

Government funding for DSA has been cut by £30million from this term and the DDSC scheme will help ensure Goldsmiths provides the right support for disabled students.

The scheme is being jointly run by the university and Goldsmiths’ Students Union (GSU) – and will follow the framework of the successful Departmental Student Co-Ordinators (DSCs) scheme introduced in the academic year 2007/08.

Vincent Moystad, GSU's Academic Representation and Student Voice Coordinator, said: “The DSC program empowers students to be partners in shaping and developing their education. We're all proud that this platform can now empower disabled students to play an active part in making Goldsmiths more inclusive and accessible.”

The process for recruiting the DDSCs will be run by GSU, which will appoint disabled students to the new roles. Successful applicants will receive a £700 bursary.

The new roles have been funded by a £266,000 grant awarded to Goldsmiths by HEFCE Student Opportunity Fund.

To ensure that best practice and areas for development can be understood at department level, the DDSCs will work in partnership with their department to audit learning, teaching and assessment methods and the learning environment and create department level inclusion plans using a standard audit tool and survey for disabled students that will be developed by TaLIC.

TaLIC and the Inclusion & Learning Support Team will support the DDSCs throughout the year to understand how the higher education sector has responded to DSA changes and the ways that learning and teaching can adopt inclusive practices that benefit all students as well as those who are disabled.

This project will give Goldsmiths an in-depth understanding of department level learning, teaching and assessment methods and a student perspective on accessibility. This information will allow existing good practice to emerge and be showcased, as well as revealing those areas that need support to meet current expectations of inclusive practice.

Students can apply for the posts on the GSU website. The deadline for applications is 16 October.