This matters all the more for students dealing with mental health issues, exam appeals, and allegations of plagiarism or academic misconduct, where a missed adjustment or poor process can have serious academic consequences.
At Doyle Clayton, we act for students who feel they are not being treated fairly by their university. I regularly see students who have done everything they reasonably could, asked for help, provided evidence, chased for updates, and still end up disadvantaged. In some cases, in my experience, this may amount to disability discrimination or procedural unfairness that can and should be challenged.
Who is the Office for Students and what does it do?
The Office for Students, or OfS, is the independent regulator of higher education in England. Its role is to ensure that every student, whatever their background, has a fulfilling experience of higher education that enriches their lives and careers. It regulates higher education providers and has a specific remit around access, success and progression for underrepresented and disadvantaged groups, including disabled students.
The OfS sets expectations, publishes evidence, examines patterns in student outcomes and experiences, and encourages universities and colleges to improve where students are being let down.
What does the OfS research say about disabled university students?
In October 2025, the OfS published an insight brief called “One size does not fit all: Equality of opportunity for disabled students”. Its message is clear. Disabled students are entitled to expect the same experience and outcomes from higher education as their non-disabled peers, but in practice that expectation is not always met. The insight brings together data on student outcomes, National Student Survey findings, student insight research, and feedback from universities and colleges about the challenge of implementing reasonable adjustments.
The OfS says disabled students make up around a fifth of the undergraduate population. Its 2023-2024 figures show that 19.9% of full time undergraduates reported at least one disability, along with 24.6% of part time undergraduates and 17.5% of undergraduate degree apprentices. That is a significant cohort of the student body.
The insight indicates this data may understate the real picture. This is based on the assumption that some students do not disclose a disability, some are still seeking diagnosis, and some may feel unsure whether their mental health condition or learning difference will be recognised. That is particularly relevant for students with anxiety, depression, ADHD, autism, or other conditions that do not always fit neatly into institutional systems.
Why student experience matters as much as student outcomes
An important point in the OfS research is that outcomes alone do not tell the whole story. A student may still progress or graduate, but only after repeated delays, avoidable distress, and the exhausting experience of having to push for support throughout their time at university. The OfS says qualitative experience matters, and that disabled students continue to report a poorer experience of higher education than non-disabled students.
That is reflected in the National Student Survey. The OfS reports that in 2025 disabled students gave lower positivity scores than non-disabled students across every theme in the survey. The biggest gap was in organisation and management, where disabled students scored 7.5% lower. That finding will not surprise students who have spent weeks chasing an adjustment, being passed between departments, or discovering too late that a support plan has not been implemented.
The OfS also refers to evidence from Disabled Students UK that only 38 per cent of students who had declared a disability said they had the support and adjustments they needed to access their studies on equal terms. In separate student research commissioned by the OfS, 43% of applications for support were fully or partly rejected, and 78% of those rejections came with no explanation. Unsurprisingly, 91% of those students then took further action, such as seeking advice or appealing.
From my perspective, these figures matter because they confirm a pattern I see in practice. The problem is not always a complete absence of support. More often, it is delay, inconsistency, lack of explanation, or a process that requires the student to do the heavy lifting while already under pressure.
Mental health at university and the question of fairness
Mental health conditions can amount to a disability under the Equality Act. Universities have a duty to make reasonable adjustments so that disabled students are not placed at a substantial disadvantage. That legal duty is not optional: it is a core part of treating disabled students fairly.
In practice, mental health-related disadvantage can be poorly handled. A student’s symptoms can fluctuate. Support may be needed urgently rather than neatly at the start of term. A student may be too unwell to navigate a complex process, or they may attend an exam despite feeling overwhelmed because they believe they have no realistic alternative. The OfS notes evidence that students with mental health issues may be less likely to take up support because they feel overwhelmed or because stigma still plays a part.
A student with depression may miss deadlines because they are barely functioning. A student with anxiety may experience a panic attack in an assessment and then be told that because they attended, nothing can be done. A student with ADHD may struggle with organisation and be treated as careless rather than as someone whose support needs have not been met. In each of those situations, the university should be asking whether reasonable adjustments were considered, whether communication was clear, and whether the student has been treated fairly in the circumstances.
University exam appeals and disability-related disadvantage
For some students, the most immediate issue is not support in the abstract but the result that follows when support has gone wrong. This is where university exam appeals become critical.
As our University Exam Appeals guidance explains, academic appeals are usually about fairness of process, not simply disagreement with a mark. A student may have grounds to appeal where there has been procedural error, bias, or relevant new evidence of serious circumstances that could not reasonably have been provided earlier. Academic judgment itself is usually harder to challenge, but failures around process, regulations, and reasonable adjustments can be central to a strong appeal.
This is particularly important for disabled students and students with mental health conditions. If a university failed to put agreed adjustments in place, refused adjustments without proper explanation, or applied policies rigidly without considering disability-related disadvantage, the resulting assessment outcome may not be fair. The fact that a student sat the exam is not necessarily the end of the matter.
If mental health or disability has affected academic performance, the issue is often not whether the student tried hard enough. It is whether the university’s systems treated that student lawfully and fairly.
Accused of plagiarism at university
An allegation of plagiarism or academic misconduct can be deeply distressing for any student. For a student already dealing with poor mental health, it can feel catastrophic. Fear, shame and panic may follow quickly, especially when the student does not fully understand the allegation or feels pressured to respond before they are ready.
From a fairness perspective, a plagiarism allegation is rarely only about a similarity score or referencing issue. It is also about whether the university has followed its own procedures properly, whether the student has had a meaningful opportunity to respond, whether disability-related factors have been taken into account, and whether any sanction is proportionate. For students with mental health conditions, those factors can be highly relevant. Difficulties with concentration, organisation, crisis during the assessment period, or the need for adjustments at disciplinary meetings may all be important.
Reasonable adjustments are not optional
Universities and colleges have a duty to make reasonable adjustments for disabled students. The OfS brief explicitly reminds universities that they should understand what the law says about reasonable adjustments and reflect carefully on how those adjustments are implemented in practice.
The OfS highlights that universities continue to face resource pressure and increasing demand. However, financial difficulty does not remove the university’s obligation to comply with equality law. A support plan that exists only on paper, a delayed response that arrives after an exam has taken place, or a refusal with no proper reasons is not good enough when a student’s education is on the line.
My view on disabled students
So, are disabled university students treated fairly? The OfS evidence suggests that too often the answer is no, especially when fairness is measured not only by the academic result but by the route a student had to take to get there. Disabled students continue to report poorer experiences, greater difficulty securing support, and persistent problems with communication, organisation and implementation.
For students with mental health issues, those failures can be particularly damaging. For students facing exam appeals or plagiarism allegations, such allegations can alter the course of a degree.
Based on my experience of supporting university students on a variety of legal issues, I do not believe all disabled students are treated fairly. Students should not have to fight the system simply to access education on equal terms. Where a university has failed to act fairly, failed to make reasonable adjustments, or failed to follow proper process, there are practical steps and legal options available.
If you are dealing with mental health difficulties, an unfair academic outcome, or an allegation of plagiarism, early advice can make a real difference. We offer a fixed fee online consultation to make access easy and with certainty over cost. I provide clear, focused guidance to help students understand their position, protect their academic future, and move forward with confidence.