Media releases

Federation University Australia’s is shining a spotlight on Autism, ADHD and learning disabilities such as dyslexia in a new research project aimed at bolstering student retention and inclusion at university.

The Neurodiversity Inclusion and Success Project will promote the social and academic inclusion of neurodiverse students and staff at Federation University and is a collaboration between the University’s Institute of Health and Wellbeing, Student Services, Disability Services, the Institute of Education, Arts and Community as well as community stakeholders.

This initiative comes amid rising community awareness of neurodiversity as a discrete terrain of struggle for social justice, and of specific challenges faced by students and staff who are autistic, have ADHD, specific learning disabilities like dyslexia, or acquired neurodivergences like complex trauma.

To understand more about student and staff experiences and perceptions of neurodiversity, Federation University researchers are inviting current and past students and staff to participate in a survey. Both neurodivergent and neurotypical participants are welcome to take part.

“We live in a world where there is neurological diversity in how people think and learn. People may be neurodivergent due to autism, ADHD or other differences such as specific learning disability (often called dyslexia),” project leader for Neurodiversity Inclusion and Success, Dr Steve Edwards said.

“If we add up the numbers of people who are on the autism spectrum, have ADHD or a specific learning disability then roughly one in five people in our community are neurodivergent. Australian Bureau of Statistics tells us that neurodivergent adults are substantially less likely to gain a tertiary degree.”

The ABS estimates 0.7% of the Australian population has Autism, and of those people, only 8.1% had a degree, compared to 16.1% of people with a disability and 31.2% of neurotypical adults.

“They might never move from secondary to tertiary study or if they do, find the barriers are too great for them to succeed with their learning or to feel socially included,” Dr Edwards said.

“It might be that universities don’t provide the right environment or individual support and it might be that students don’t feel they can ask for help.”

Neurodiverse students are under-registered for formal learning supports, and few organisation-level strategies exist to promote a socially inclusive environment for neurodiverse students, the ABS data shows.

The researchers are hoping to find out more about the extent of neurodiversity at Federation and what strategies might assist social inclusion and academic success.

“We suspect that some neurodivergent students made it despite the challenges, some didn’t make it and failed or dropped out. We hope that some of these past (or present) students that we can’t reach through our normal channels who are willing to share their experience through our survey.”

The Neurodiversity Inclusion and Success project can be contacted via email at nd.inclusionandsuccess@federation.edu.au, or by phone on (03) 5327 9165. The Neurodiversity Inclusion and Success survey is online at https://federation.edu.au/ndsurvey.