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Students with a disability who are attending full-time, part-time or some postgraduate courses of study in higher education may be eligible for additional support.
If you have a mental-health difficulty, a physical disability, a specific learning difficulty such as dyslexia or an unseen disability such as diabetes, which affects your ability to study, you may qualify for the Disabled Students’ Allowances (DSA).
The DSA is a government or NHS funded grant, to cover the cost of equipment or support such as, note-takers, or sometimes travel costs you may have to pay in order to attend your course. The amount of DSA you receive will depend on your DSA Needs Assessment (see below), and who you apply to depends on how your course is funded (see below).
You can apply for the DSA if you are applying for university even if you have not made your final decision on where you are going or what you are studying, providing you have the relevant evidence.
However, this grant is only available to students paying home fees for a university course, but is non-means tested.
International students are not eligible for the DSA. However, as with all students that are registered with DDS, they will have access to specialist equipment and software available on campus. They will also be given baseline provision of support, which includes extra time in exams, handouts given in the appropriate format, and coursework marked according to DDS guidelines in the case of specific learning difficulties.
Students who are not eligible for the DSA, or whose support is likely to exceed the maximum DSA allowances, cannot expect funding at the same level as that of the DSA.
Students should consider this when applying to study at London South Bank University. Please see LSBU's DSA Statement of Practice for more information
There may be other grants or awards they can apply for.
Disabled Students' Allowances for students funded by Student Finance England
If your course is eligible to apply for Student Loans and Fee Support you may be eligible for Disabled Students' Allowances (DSA), you should make your DSA application to Student Finance England. This applies even if you do not take up the loan or fee support.
Disabled Students' Allowances for students funded by the NHS Bursary
The process of application for DSA is slightly different for NHS funded students; if your course is funded by an NHS Bursary you will need to apply to them for your DSA, please see below.
Disabled Students' Allowances for students funded by their employer
The process of application for DSA is slightly different for health students whose employer funds their course (also known as seconded). See below for more details.
If your course fees are funded in any of the following ways:
you can find further information about DSA and application forms for most Higher Education courses at: Student Finance England (at DirectGov)- Disabled Students' Allowances
If your course started before September 2009 you may have dealt with the Local Authority you live in, however local authorities transferred all student finance business to Student Finance England (SFE) by March 2011, so you must now deal with them. (Please therefore ignore any mention of Local Authority funding in these pages whilst they are updated to reflect the changes.)
Click here for our guide to DSA for Loan and Self funded students.
Student Finance England DSA Application Forms 2011/2012:
Please make sure that you use the correct form for the correct academic year as using the wrong form will delay your application. Clicking on the links below for the Long or Short forms will take you directly to the relevant forms for 2011/12.
You can fill these forms in by typing in the boxes provided but you cannot email the application or save the form so you will need to have access to a printer.
Long Form
You should complete the long form if the following applies, you are:
You must get Section 5 stamped by the Fees Office in the Technopark building. If you are a continuing student you may not be able to get the next year's form stamped until you have received your results for the current year.
If any of the above applies you must also complete the long version of the form and get Section 5 stamped by the Fees Office in the Technopark building every academic year.
Applicants with an Unconditional Offer can get the form stamped in advance; please contact us to ask us how.
Click here for the Long Form 2011/2012
Short Form
You should complete the short form if the following applies, you are:
If you state on your loan application that you want to apply for DSA, you can wait for Student Finance England to send you a short form with your details already filled in. you can then just sign it and return it to SFE. You should do this every year to ensure your DSA continues.
Click here for the Short Form 2011/12
If you apply mid-year it is probably best to complete the long form, regardless of your status.
If you are unsure please check with Disability & Dyslexia Support or your DSA funder as your DSA funded support may be affected if you use the wrong form or do not reapply if you need to.
Claiming for expenses (Student Finance England only)
If you want to claim for expenses you have already paid for, fill in a 'Claim form for reimbursement of costs through Disabled Students' Allowances' and send it to SFE with the original* receipts.
The DSA expenses claim form for 2012/13 will be available in October 2012.
*We strongly suggest that you keep a copy of all invoices and correspondance.
Student Finance England DSA Application Forms 2012/2013:
Please make sure that you use the correct form for the correct academic year as using the wrong form will delay your application. Clicking on the link below will take you directly to the relevant forms forcurrent students and for 2012/13.
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If you receive an NHS bursary, you need to complete the NHS Bursary DSA form instead and send it to the NHS Bursary Unit. Click Here for an application form.
NHS Bursary funded students: you only need to apply once for the duration of your course, but youmust make sure that you apply for the bursary itself every year. You will need to reapply for DSA if you change your course.
If you are unsure please check with Disability & Dyslexia Support or your funder as your DSA funded support may be affected if you do not reapply if you need to.
Click here for our guide to DSA for NHS funded students.
Claiming for expenses (NHS Bursary only)
If you want to claim for expenses you have already paid for, you will need to send the original receipts with a covering letter quoting your bursary number, to the NHS Bursary. We strongly suggest that you keep a copy of all invoices and correspondance.
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If you are a seconded student (you are on a course in the Health and Social Care faculty but do not receive an NHS Bursary) you need to apply to Student Finance England as above, but as well as your evidence you must include a letter from your employer confirming that you are seconded and that your employer is paying your fees.
If you don't include the letter with your application form, your application will be delayed.
Click here for our guide to DSA for Seconded students.
You must also get Section 5 stamped by the Fees Office in the Technopark building.#
# If you are a continuing student you may not be able to get the next year's form stamped until you have received your results for the current year.
Applicants with an Unconditional Offer can get the form stamped, please contact us to ask us how.
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Other - Social Work Bursary (Postgraduate only) 2011/12
Please follow this link if you will receive a Social Work Bursary as there is a different DSA application form for these students: SWB_DSA_Application_11_12
Please contact Disability & Dyslexia Support on 020 7815 6405 or by email at disability@lsbu.ac.uk if you need further advice.
If you receive a letter or email sending you for a Needs Assessment (also known as an assessment of needs interview) please click here for information about booking an assessment at one of the London Access Centres. You can also find the nearest Needs Assessment Centre to where you live by going to the DSA-QAG website.
When you attend the Needs Assessment the Assessor should talk through the support available through DSA and may be able to show you different types of equipment and software. Please make sure that you take the letter (or a printout of the email) authorising the Needs Assessment and a copy of the evidence that you used to apply for DSA.
Needs Assessments at LSBU
We can now arrange some Needs Assessments for LSBU students who have applied for DSA on the basis of being dyslexic only, to take place on the Southwark campus.
Appointments currently only take place on Tuesdays, and must be booked in advance and in person through Disability & Dyslexia Support. We need to see the letter from your funding body, so just bring the letter in to the Southwark office and ask our administrators if it is possible to book you in for an assessment here.
At present our assessor can only carry out Needs Assessments for students with dyslexia. When you attend please make sure that you take the letter authorising the Needs Assessment and a copy of the evidence that you used to apply for DSA. (DDS will not provide the assessor with your evidence.)
This service is offered in conjunction with Central London Assessment Services (CLASS) at the University of Westminster.
page updated 05/03/2012 12:08
