Supporting young adults with special educational needs (SEN) in obtaining higher qualifications

Supporting young adults with special educational needs in obtaining higher qualifications is an ambitious, desirable and noble project, occasionally labeled “university for all” or “full inclusion in higher education”. But there is a risk, that beyond inclusive rhetoric, universities persist in being perceived by national policymakers and also perceive themselves as elite organizatins, that is only accessible to highly educated and highly skilled persons that will be successful in labour market competition and so promise to recapitalize (increasingly high) investments in higher education. Not inclusion efforts and individuals with disabilities, but rather national economic growth and international competitiveness are in the centre of contemporary concerns, despite the worldwide ratification of the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities and global acknowledgment of inclusive education as a human right. While some students with disabilities certainly do manage to adapt to the existing systems of higher education, especially when they receive reasonable accommodations they deserve, but there will be other students with more severe disabilities who may need more support to reach their individual learning goals and who may not promise to 'return' the invest. Yet not only those students with disabilities who are labeled as incompatible with employment remain persistently excluded from higher education. Having in mind this risk, the rhetoric of “university for all” has to be reconsidered. At the same time that many universities are seriously challenged by reductions in public funding, universal design principles diffuse worldwide, and the UN Convention mandates accessibility at all levels of learning, including higher education.