Dr Eilidh Cage, along with Jack Howes, has recently published a new paper looking at  the experiences of autistic people who have dropped out of university. This research involved interviews with 14 autistic people, and Eilidh and Jack identified common themes from the participants’ experiences. These themes are shown in the picture below – encompassing a range of systemic, structural issues, as well as challenges within university life, and then life after dropping out.    

This research has important implications for universities – who clearly could do more to support autistic students. Eilidh and Jack discuss some of their recommendations for universities in this video:

This research follows on from a larger scale survey looking at the factors that affect university completion for autistic people.

You can read the paper, published in the journal Autism, here: Dropping out and moving on: A qualitative study of autistic people’s experiences of university. If you have trouble accessing the paper, please contact Dr Eilidh Cage via email (eilidh.cage[at]stir.ac.uk).