Extra costs for students with disability

STUDENTS with learning disabilities could be forced to pay hundreds of euro for psychological assessments to support their third-level applications under rules being sought by colleges.

Concerns have been expressed by guidance counsellors who are opposing plans by higher education institutions to require those with a specific learning disability, such as dyslexia, to provide an assessment carried out by an educational psychologist in the past three years.

In previous years, colleges requested a report from the previous five years that is often already available for a student who had an assessment done in first or second year at school. But they are likely to need a new report if the changes are introduced.