New International Study Launched on Inclusive Assessment in Higher Education

A new collaboration between researchers at the DCU Institute of Education and Université Paris Cité aims to create a cross-cultural understanding of best practice in the assessment of autistic students in higher education to support students’ full inclusion.

Funded by a Research Ireland Ulysses Award to Principal Investigators, Dr Sinéad McNally (DCU Institute of Education) and Professor Émilie Cappe (Université Paris Cité), and Co-Investigators, Dr Christina O’Keeffe (DCU School of Inclusive and Special Education) and Dr Johanna Despax (Université Paris Cité), the study’s objective is to identify implementable recommendations for assessment practices by academics and teaching support staff.

Addressing a Gap in Higher Education

While the number of autistic students attending Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) has grown rapidly, autistic students graduate at significantly lower rates than non-autistic peers reducing career opportunities and quality of life. A persistent barrier to autistic students’ progression in Higher Education is the lack of accommodations in assessment. This project will investigate accommodations in assessments that support the inclusion of autistic students in Higher Education in Ireland, France and internationally with the aim of achieving greater inclusion of autistic students in Higher Education through evidence-informed assessment practices.

The project aims to meet a key target of the UN’s Strategic Development Goal number 4, namely the full inclusion of students with disabilities, and to contribute to the Autism Innovation Strategy in Ireland and the National Strategy for Neurodevelopmental Disorders in France.

Dr McNally and Dr O’Keeffe are both members of the DCU Centre for Inclusive Pedagogy and view this new collaboration with researchers at Université Paris Cité as crucial for inclusive higher education teaching and learning:

Autism has historically been viewed through a deficit lens, and currently, there is a significant lack of data on assessment accommodations. This collaboration aims to plug this research gap through a new collaboration working within a strengths-based neurodiversity paradigm which values autistic students’ differences and strengths and sees changes in the HEI environment as necessary for the full inclusion of autistic students.