International support
We work closely with all disabled students, including international students, to make sure they are not disadvantaged by their disability or specific learning difficulty.
If you have a disability please contact the disability and dyslexia team to talk about how we can help you.
What is considered a disability in the UK?
There is no universal definition of 'disability' so it is important to understand what UK law says about this and how the university helps disabled students.
UK definition: Under the terms of the Equality Act 2010, a disabled person is defined as someone who has a physical or mental impairment, which has a substantial, long term and adverse effect on his or her ability to carry out normal day-to-day activities, which can include things such as mobility, speech, hearing, vision, memory and learning.
The Equality Act also makes it clear that it is illegal for disabled people to be discriminated against on the basis of their disability, that they must not be treated worse than non-disabled people and that reasonable support must be provided.
Dyslexia
You can speak to an adviser to discuss your concerns and find out how to be tested for dyslexia. We use a computer assisted dyslexia screening programme which determines if your difficulties are due to studying in English, or because of dyslexia or specific learning difficulties.
There is a range of support available for students with dyslexia.
If English is not your first language, additional free English language support is available.
Financial support
Students who are not from the UK will not be eligible for the Disabled Students’ Allowances. The University of Brighton is, however, committed to ensuring equality of access, as far as reasonably possible.
If you are a disabled international or European prospective student, please contact the disability and dyslexia team before making your application to the university, to discuss your support needs, and find out more about the facilities that will be available to you.
The disability and dyslexia team will help you find funding that may be available to pay for equipment and support workers. In order to help with this process, please investigate the following options before starting at Brighton:
- If you have a sponsor, ask if they can contribute money to cover disability-related expenses. For example, some scholarships offer funding to cover disability-related costs.
- If you are a European student on the EU Socrates / Erasmus exchange programme, you may be eligible for grants, which are higher than normal study grants, to help you pay costs related to your disability. For more information, please contact your Erasmus co-ordinator.
- You may be eligible for a grant from your own government, so contact your education department to ask what support they can provide. We know that the Eire, Jersey and Guernsey, Sweden, Netherlands, and Thailand governments provide support - though others may also.
- Finally, you may be eligible for support from non-governmental organisations in your home country.
If additional funding is not available, the disability and dyslexia team will work with you to arrange suitable support. We will work hard to meet your needs in the best way possible, so please get in touch as soon as you know you are coming so that we can begin to help you.
Find out more
- Information for international students with disabilities produced by UKCISA (UK Council for International Student Affairs) available from www.ukcisa.org.uk.
- Sources of funding for international students produced by the British Council available from www.britishcouncil.org.
