The traditional route to Higher Education from school or sixth form has changed with the inclusion of foundation and degree courses being available at FE colleges and an expansion of FE-HE collaboration.  The Government also introduced Access Programmes in 1970.  These may be run by Further Education colleges, Community education services and voluntary organisations and in England and Wales in 2007/8 9% of the students taking these types of courses were disabled - a 3.5% rise from 2004/5.(QAA Access to Higher Education )

Access courses are aimed at adults (minimum age is 19) who want to study but do not have the necessary qualifications to begin a degree course.  Support for additional learning needs comes from the provider of the course but there appear to be no clear guidelines for this aspect of the courses mentioned on the Access to HE website.

Over the last decade inclusion and the social model of disability have had an impact on the support of disabled students in Higher Education (HE). However, some of the issues raised in staff development materials Making Reasonable Adjustments with Disabled Students in Higher Education (2002) remain issues today, when encouraging independence through the use of assistive technologies and communication aids.

Equity. The fundamental question of whether disabled students are expected to ‘fit in’ to the existing curriculum with minor adjustments or whether a fairer curriculum can be devised which takes full account of any impairments.

Transition. The impact of prior educational experience on student attitudes and expectations and the changes needed in HE to accommodate these.

Students as experts about disability. The obvious common sense of this with the accompanying question of how this can be operationalised in practice. The impact of students’ ability to communicate about the experience of disability on the curriculum outcomes with staff; and the implications of this for student involvement.

Within the June 2009 update of the HEFCE Strategic Plan 2006-11 the report states that "Disabled students are an important part of the widening participation agenda. We will continue to work with the Equality Challenge Unit, the Higher Education Academy, Action on Access and others, to support universities and colleges in widening opportunities for learners with disabilities. We will continue to provide a dedicated funding stream for universities and colleges to recognise the additional costs involved in recruiting and supporting disabled students.”  This should provide a clear indication that the disabled student should not have to ‘fit-in’ to the existing curriculum, but that an accessible curriculum should be available to all.

Once students attend university, it is the individual Higher Education Funding Councils for England, Wales and the Scottish Funding Council and Department for Employment and Learning, Northern Ireland, who provide mainstream disability funding.  This tends to “reflect the proportion of students that each institution recruits who are in receipt of the Disabled Students Allowance.”  This method of providing funding, in a top down manner, does not take into account the number of disabled international students or those on part-time courses that do not qualify for Disabled Students Allowances. 

The Scottish Funding Council also provides funding to HE institutions through the main teaching grant, and provides Disability Premium Funding (DSP) to HE institutions to support widening access for students with disability-related additional needs. The Higher Education Funding Council in England (HEFCE) allocates funds for disability provision as does the HEFCW (Wales) and the Department of Employment and Learning in Northern Ireland.