SNP MSP for Central Scotland Christina McKelvie has today (Wednesday) written to the principals of colleges and universities in Lanarkshire to alert them to important improvements to the system of support for disabled students.

Following the first review of the Disabled Student’s Allowance (DSA) since the 1970s, the Cabinet Secretary for Education has announced a range of measures to improve support for disabled students, including:
• new procedures that will ensure that ‘exceptional cases’, who do not meet the existing criteria for the DSA but who still need additional financial support to undertake their education, will with the support of their institutions be able to have their cases reviewed by an expert group, quickly and fairly
• guidance making it clear for the first time that students should not be expected to pay for diagnoses to support their DSA applications
• focusing the DSA application process much more clearly on students’ needs
• greatly improved information to the sector to raise awareness among students and staff.

Ms McKelvie said today:

“I want to ensure that all of my student constituents who have the potential to benefit from these important changes to the Disabled Students Allowance are able to do so, which is why I alerted the principals of Motherwell, Coatbridge and Cumbernauld Colleges and the University of the West of Scotland as soon as these improvements were announced by the SNP Government today.

“I am delighted that Scottish students will be the first in the UK to benefit from new procedures which will ensure that students designated as ‘exceptional cases’ will no longer have the door to accessing financial support permanently closed to them but will instead still have the opportunity to get the help they need to pursue a college or university education.

“The changes announced today will help to widen access to higher and further education in Scotland and greatly benefit both current and future generations of students.”