Assessment, Learning & Teaching Reflections |
Monday 23 January, 2006
The University is committed to widening access to higher education. In my view this is a very laudable and important goal. It also raises many challenges. Imagine we characterise success in HE as getting all students to point X (eg successful degree completion). Intuitively, the more diverse the incoming student population, the greater the challenge in getting all to point X. We need therefore to consider how best to meet the needs of this diversity, hence the many on-going initiatives within the University such as the student retention working group and the CETL projects.
One specific aspect of the diversity concerns students with disabilities. Here, much is going on at Leeds Met, eg in INN we have research into how technology might help with blindness, dyslexia and autism, Jill Taylor’s reflection of 4/1/06 looked at how WebCT can make learning more accessible, the library has produced a film to assist staff training on disability issues. My view is that Leeds Met can become a leading authority in this area, given its large and broad student population. I advocate the creation of a specialist “disability research centre”, and hope to hear from colleagues who would like to help set it up.
David Moore,
