Transition support into HE for disabled students (pre-entry)

What is it? Transition support aims to help disabled students transition into higher education (HE).

Evidence? There is evidence that entry to HE is a critical point for disabled students, making transition support essential. From the existing literature, there is anecdotal evidence that transitions support could positively impact disabled students’ retention and attainment. However, few transition support programmes have been rigorously evaluated.

Should HEPs adopt it? Providers should seek to embed causal evaluation to understand the extent to which they impact disabled student outcomes – see the TASO evaluation guidance for more information on how to do this. They should seek to build an understanding of which type of transitions support are most effective for each disabled student group.

What is this intervention?

Transitions support programmes are designed to help disabled students transition into HE. They generally involve:

• Working in partnership with multiple stakeholders (e.g., parents, schools, colleges);
• Providing explicit support for the transition into a new environment;
• Engaging students in pre-HE skills development;
• Helping students familiarise themselves with courses and places
• Self-advocacy skills development
• Some additional transition programmes focus on disabled student progression into employment.

What is the target group?

The advice on this page draws on evidence about transitions support for disabled HE students. It refers to a wide range of disabled student subgroups who fall under this umbrella. There is not enough evidence to provide specific advice on how to support students with specific disabilities.

How effective is it?

There is correlational evidence that entry to higher education is a critical point for disabled students, making transition support highly important. Safer et al. (2020) found disabled US college students who used support services targeted to them were more likely to persevere and perform better, especially if they used services during their first term at university.

A handful of studies find a correlation between explicit transitions support and outcomes such as self-determination (Schillaci et al., 2021), accessing accommodations (Newman & Madaus, 2015) and course completion (Yu et al., 2018).

One US study which goes further in demonstrating impact is Ruble et al. (2018). They randomly varied whether students with autism took part in an intervention which involved parent-teacher consultation, goal-setting and coaching for teachers and students. They find some promising evidence that this multi-stakeholder consultative approach improved the extent to which students achieve their transition goals. But with a small sample of 20 students, further research is needed to underpin this approach.

Agarwal et al., (2021) specifically focused on examining a mentoring programme for students with intellectual and developmental disabilities. It used pre- and post-questionnaires to capture data before and after mentoring workshops and found limited improvements in disability awareness for mentors, but no other changes in knowledge or attitudes.

What features seem to be important?

Transitions support captures a broad range of programmes, making it difficult to distil general features of effective practice. Looking at the existing evidence base, it is possible to identify some important features:

• An integrated approach involving disability support teams, mental health and finance teams.
• The involvement of all relevant stakeholders in the programme, including families and friends.
• Close communication between secondary and postsecondary providers.
• Early assessment of individual student needs.

It should be noted that provision of transition support is not always sufficient to effectively improve disabled student outcomes, especially those for disadvantaged or underrepresented groups.

What don’t we know?

Given the mostly emerging evidence base on transition support, there is currently a lot that we do not know. Producing more evidence on transition programmes is highly important to help us understand their impact.

There is a high degree of variation in the content and delivery of transition support programmes. Understanding how each design feature affects outcomes for each subgroup of disabled students is an essential step towards more effective programmes. This can be done by focusing on students’ experiences during the transition periods.

Where does the evidence come from?

TASO’s evidence on the efficacy of transition support programmes is based on evidence from six studies, including one causal study.

The key references are given below.

Key references

Causal studies

Ruble, L. A., McGrew, J. H., Toland, M., Dalrymple, N., Adams, M., & Snell-Rood, C. (2018). Randomized control trial of COMPASS for improving transition outcomes of students with autism spectrum disorder. Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders, 48(10), 3586-3595. Linked here.

Other studies

Agarwal, R., Heron, L., Naseh, M., & Burke, S. L. (2021). Mentoring students with intellectual and developmental disabilities: Evaluation of role-specific workshops for mentors and mentees. Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders, 51(4), 1281-1289. Linked here.

Newman, L. A., & Madaus, J. W. (2015). An analysis of factors related to receipt of accommodations and services by postsecondary students with disabilities. Remedial and Special Education, 36(4), 208-219. Linked here.

Safer, A., Farmer, L., & Song, B. (2020). Quantifying Difficulties of University Students with Disabilities. Journal of Postsecondary Education and Disability, 33(1), 5-21. Linked here. 

Schillaci, R. S., Parker, C. E., Grigal, M., & Paiewonsky, M. (2021). College-Based Transition Services’ Impact on Self-Determination for Youth With Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities. Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities, 59(4), 269-282. Linked here.

Yu, M., Novak, J. A., Lavery, M. R., Vostal, B. R., & Matuga, J. M. (2018) ‘Predicting College Completion Among Students With Learning Disabilities’, Career Development and Transition for Exceptional Individuals, 41(4), 234–244. doi: https://doi.org/10.1177/2165143417750093