Letter of guidance about disability

Did you know that in May 2020, the Ministry of Higher Education and Science issued the Letter of guidance on the management of disability by educational institutions? Based on a recent enquiry about SDU’s practical handling of the letter of guidance and discussions in SAK ADM, the background for the letter of guidance and the process for how SDU is ensuring that it is used correctly are outlined below.

Background

In connection with the processing of several complaints, the Danish Agency for Higher Education and Science raised questions about whether the case management and procedure regarding the granting of special examination conditions at several educational institutions complied with the Act on Prohibition of Discrimination in the Labour Market, etc. (Lov om forbud mod forskelsbehandling på arbejdsmarkedet mv.). Therefore, in May 2020, the Agency published a Letter of guidance on the management of disability by educational institutions.

At SDU, we have ensured that the letter of guidance is used correctly by means of a so-called implementation brief. The brief applies in cases in which a disability prevents a student from completing their study programme on an equal footing with other students. It also applies in cases in which it is later discovered that the necessary modifications have not been made for exams in which a student has already participated (but not completed). For example, this would be the case if a board of studies had only granted special exam conditions for the first attempt of a given exam and not for subsequent exam attempts or for exams with a comparable exam form. In such cases, it may be necessary to make a decision to grant special exam conditions in the future and to make a decision to nullify exam attempts for exams that have not been passed or that have been postponed. 

The implementation brief contains the procedure for:

1. Disability evaluation: 
   An interplay between medical and educational evaluation
   The medical evaluation is the basic premise for the board of studies to make their educational evaluation and must include a diagnosis of curable/incurable disease, individual assessment of the impact of the disability on the course of study and individual assessment of long-term illness, including future prognosis.
   
   
2. Processing by study boards:
   The board of studies must begin processing the case by examining whether the student has medically documented disabilities that may adversely affect the student’s studies, and therefore modifications are to be granted as necessary. The case must be disclosed by the student if obtaining additional information from a medical professional if the documentation does not contain the items listed in Point 1 for making an evaluation of disability.
   Next, an educational evaluation must be made as to whether the assessed disability should result in the granting of special exam conditions. When processing the case, the board of studies must take into account all the exams in which the student will be tested throughout the study programme, in accordance with the normal course of study in the study regulations. For academic reasons, the board of studies may decide that it is not possible to offer modifications for one or more specific exams. 
   
   
3. Using the decision
   It is the student’s own responsibility to contact their study programme if they wish to make use of the granted opportunities. The decision must include contact information, which the student can use when dispensation is required. It can be a requirement that the request is made one month before the exam.
   The granting of special exam conditions will only apply to the study programme in question, e.g. a bachelor’s programme, and the student must therefore reapply when transferring to another study programme, e.g. an elective, a minor or a master’s programme. The student will also have to make another application if the student is taking courses offered by other study programmes at SDU or other educational institutions, or if the student changes study programme. 

The student’s responsibility:

It is the student’s responsibility to apply for and make it known if they wish to have dispensation for special exam conditions. SDU is therefore not obliged to investigate matters such as previous registrations, SPS or similar.

Would you like to know more?

Contact uddannelsesjura@sdu.dk at SDU if you have any questions about the letter of guidance on disability.