Removing university’s barriers for neurodiverse students

For neurodiverse students, university can be a challenging place. Academic and social spaces offer their own barriers and it can be difficult to find the right support to learn to navigate those.

Deakin University’s Disability Resource Centre (DRC) and Counselling and Psychological Support (CAPS) teams have put in place various programs, called the Neurodiverse Student Programs, to reduce those barriers and make the university experience more positive for its neurodiverse students.

The Neurodiverse Student Programs team includes disability liaison officers, psychologists, ADHD support group facilitators and student peer mentors, all working together to support the student body. They’re led by Senior Officer of Neurodiverse Student Programs Andrew Synnot.

The suite includes four tailored programs: NAVIGATE Peer Mentoring, ADHD Support Groups, ADHD Study Groups and Low Sensory Orientation Tours. All were co-designed with students who had lived experience, according to Synnot.

“Students were involved through Deakin’s ‘Students As Partners’ program employed to co-design and/or refresh the existing offerings. On top of this, each program collects feedback from participants whilst they’re actively in the programs so that we can implement improvements or suggested changes in a responsive manner based off real-time feedback.”

He said the university knew how important it was to make university a more welcoming and accessible place for its neurodiverse student body. “Australian data indicates that neurodivergent students are four times less likely than people without disabilities to hold a bachelor’s degree or higher, and neurodivergent students report facing both academic challenges like an inability to access appropriate academic support, and non-academic challenges like social isolation and loneliness at university,” he explained.

“It’s imperative from an access, inclusion and equity lens, that we provide extra support to our neurodivergent student population and foster inclusion in all areas of their university experience.”

Created through lived experience, with purpose

The original peer mentor program was piloted at Deakin's Burwood campus in 2018 before expanding to the regional campuses the following year. As well as operating in-person, it is now run online too. It was formed in response to an increase in the number of autistic students enrolling at Deakin and accessing the DRC and CAPS for support with university administration, academic issues and wayfinding.

In response, DRC and CAPS sought student feedback and found that students wanted a peer-to-peer program to help, rather than a new professional service. This became the NAVIGATE program. “[It’s] run by student mentors who conduct mentoring sessions. The program staff provide supervision, administrative and practical support to the mentors, and any required support to the mentees,” Synnot explained.

Autistic students who are transitioning to university are paired with trained student mentors with lived experience, who they catch up with on a weekly basis. The mentors “offer guidance, encouragement, and support to navigate Deakin systems and services, and share their own experiences to help mentees build confidence, connection, and independence,” he said.

For ADHD students, the university offers both support groups and study groups. The support group came first as an online pilot in 2022 and was modelled after a similar program at Curtin University. Now run on-campus too, members receive peer support and guidance through topics related to ADHD across a six-week block, in a program co-facilitated by both staff and students with lived experience.

“This program was created with the intentions of providing students with psychoeducation around their ADHD experience, offering strategies that might help them manage their life and studies with ADHD, and the ability to form peer-to-peer connection with others going through a similar experience,” Synnot said.

The support groups are complemented by the study groups, which run weekly for two hours online or at the Waurn Ponds or Burwood campuses, and give students with ADHD the chance to practice ‘body doubling’ and learn study strategies from their peers. The idea for it came directly from students in the support groups, who had tried to create their own informal study groups but needed external support. They’re run by staff members using the pomodoro method of 25 minutes of study followed by a five minute break.

This year, Deakin also began running low sensory orientation tours in the week prior to Orientation Week, to allow students with sensory sensitivities the chance to explore the campus at a quieter, less overstimulating time. The tours are deliberately kept to a small size and are run by student mentors from the NAVIGATE program. In fact, Synnot said, the idea for the low sensory tours came from a NAVIGATE student mentor.

Each of the four programs is opt-in, so students choose which ones they’d like to participate in. They can do one on its own, or all of them – and many students do participate in multiple programs.

The benefits of co-design

Synnot said the university had learned that “a co-designed program is a well-designed program”. “When a program is created by students for students, you can be fairly certain students will flock to it,” he said. Similarly, strong partnerships between DRC and CAPS have contributed to the success of the suite, providing the right resourcing and backing.

An important factor to consider when creating the programs was the diversity amongst neurodivergent students. “A common saying amongst our neurodivergent students is, “if you’ve met one neurodivergent student, you’ve only met one neurodivergent student”,” Synnot said. “I think this quote captures the diversity in experiences and intersectionality that we have needed to be mindful of in order to ensure our programs are supporting a wide range of students and hitting the mark for each student.”

And it seems the are hitting the mark. Student and staff feedback on the suite of programs has been “overwhelmingly positive”, Synnot said. “Students have reported feeling supported, validated and accepted in their lived experience. They’ve also reported an increased sense of connection and belonging. Plus, students have felt more confident in being able to manage their studies.”

Meanwhile, staff have reported positive shifts in their students, with many becoming more proactive in seeking support while at university. “We have also had neurodivergent students tell us that they chose to study at Deakin University, as opposed to other institutions, based off the specific neurodiverse student programs and support offerings available to them here,” he added.

Earlier this year, the Neurodiverse Student Programs received an ADCET Accessibility in Action Award. “Receiving this award is validation of our work and our continued efforts to support our neurodivergent students at Deakin,” Synnot said. “We don’t do what we do expecting to be recognised for an award like this, so we all feel very privileged that our efforts have been recognised.”

Written by: Danielle Kutchel

(October 2025)