If you are considering the University of Southampton and you have a disability, specific learning difficulty or mental health problem, you will benefit from finding out about the support available to you.
Specialist practitioners and advisors are here to support students during their time at University. The professionalism and commitment of everyone here is recognised across the University and beyond. We have years of experience supporting students with all kinds of disabilities and problems.
Areas of support
Support available
- First Support is available during office hours to help with a crisis. There is also backup from an on-call out of hours service.
- An informal drop-in service runs daily in term time, staffed by experienced and trained advisors. Appointments with specialist practitioners are always available on request.
- Residences Support operates 24/7 in all Halls of Residence, and their staff work closely with Enabling Services.
- Specialist support, including additional exam recommendations (AERs) and assistive technology software is available for students with a specific learning difficulty (SpLD) such as dyslexia. Send your post-16 diagnostic assessment report to enable@soton.ac.uk to arrange a meeting with an SpLD practitioner to discuss your support recommendations. Please be aware that a post-16 diagnostic assessment report is required if you would like to access additional exam recommendations such as extra time. If you do not have a post-16 diagnostic assessment report and would like to be tested for a specific learning difficulty, please refer to our How to access web page.
- Study Skills Support: meet 1:1 with a specialist practitioner (no appointment necessary) for practical study advice and support. Available Monday, Wednesday and Friday, 2pm - 4pm in the ATS room in Hartley Library.
- Disability specialists provide support as needed when a problem arises in study or student life.
- Qualified counsellors and experienced mentors are there to help those experiencing difficulties in life and study.
- We have excellent working arrangements with local NHS services, for example on-campus GP practices, the Southampton eating disorders service, and secondary mental health care teams.
- Experienced study needs assessors are available at short notice to help students access funding from Disabled Students’ Allowances (DSA).
- Our website has advice about looking after yourself, common mental health problems and other difficulties of student life, allowing completely private access to information and guidance, including who to contact if things go wrong.
Tell us about your needs
Disclosing a need for support (including but not limited to physical disability, dyslexia and mental health problems) will not affect your application to study at the University of Southampton.
Please let us know as soon as you can about your support needs. When you enrol, you agree to share information with relevant university departments. If you would prefer information not to be shared, please contact us to discuss this.
The easiest way to disclose is to enter a code in the Disability box on your UCAS application form. We will know you have applied and will send you a questionnaire asking about your support needs, so we can put support in place before you start University.
If you have not ticked the Disability box on the UCAS form, contact us at any time to explore your options and get advice.