Students Experiencing Academic Disadvantage
| Policy applies to: | All coursework degrees |
This policy intersects with the Assessment, Special Consideration, Extensions, Examinations and Alternative Examinations Arrangements (AEAs), and Remission/Refund of Fees policies.
Objective
The University of Melbourne has a long-standing commitment to facilitating the participation of students experiencing academic disadvantage, and aims to make the university an educational institution that is accessible to all students with the capacity to take advantage of a world-class education.
In the University environment, supports, services and policies exist to minimise the impact of short-term health issues and impairments (see the Special Consideration Policy, Extensions policy, or Consideration for Shorter Assignments & Tests). For this reason, the University focus is on students whose experience of disadvantage can be reasonably predicted to interfere significantly with activities on either an ongoing or episodic basis.
The University is committed to working with students hampered by disadvantage, with the goal of ensuring, whenever practical, that they are not deprived of the opportunity to demonstrate their academic merit during teaching and assessment.
Whilst the University provides services to students experiencing academic disadvantage which may arise from a wide range of circumstances, the University is required to make reasonable adjustments to its learning environment consistent with requirements under the Disability Standards for Education. Not all students experiencing disability will experience academic disadvantage or require reasonable adjustments. The intent of this policy is to enable the provision of adjustments to students experiencing disadvantage in completing academic tasks, and is not an overarching University policy on disability in broad terms. The concept of reasonableness is also extended to students experiencing disadvantage for a range of circumstances. This policy, where appropriate, specifically delineates between general academic disadvantage and disability-related disadvantage to reflect the specific legislative requirements that apply to disability, but not other disadvantaged groups (Reference: the Disability Discrimination Act [1992] and Disability Standards for Education [2005]).