As the University of Sussex continues with proposed cuts, I got the opportunity to speak to Students and Staff about how disabled students could be effected.
Disabled students and the staff who support them continue to face cuts and redundancies in support services at the University of Sussex. The proposed cuts could make around 200 members of staff redundant, with as many as 600 jobs at risk across the University. Many members of the Disability Support team have already taken voluntary redundancy.
The University of Sussex is not the only institution proposing such changes. A growing number of universities across the UK have announced cuts to disability services in recent months. Vice-Chancellor Sasha Roseneil has cited declining international student numbers and long-term under-funding of the higher education sector as causes. Students who rely on support services, including disabled students, are among those facing uncertainty about what proposed redundancies might mean for university life.
Roz D’Ath, an autistic PhD student who currently receives support from her Study Skills Tutor, has raised concerns for disabled students following the proposed cuts. She questioned the decision to target in-house student support services, describing it as “bizarre considering it’s the DSA [Disabled Students’ Allowance] who finances the vast majority of the support staff.” She said the redundancies undermine the University’s claim to value inclusivity as a core principle, adding that “inclusivity becomes performative” if the changes go ahead, and that she expects the University to become “much less accessible” for disabled students. D’Ath said she feels “massively let down” by the University, a sentiment she believes is shared by many disabled students across campus, many of whom, she feels, rely on these services to access their education. She said this feeling was compounded by the fact that she first learned of the proposals through a press leak, rather than through official communication from the University itself, which she said has left many students feeling overlooked and unheard at an already difficult and uncertain time.
Lydia Petch, the Disabled Students’ Officer at Sussex Students’ Union, offered a similar comment on the proposals and their potential impact on the wider student body. She said “There is a minimum level of compliance required by all institutions to be inclusive of disabled people,” but warned that “compliance and true accessibility are not always the same,” and that disability services often suffer the most during cost-cutting when that distinction becomes blurred in difficult financial decisions. She argued that “non- essential services should be cut before essential ones,” and that the University’s priorities in deciding where to make savings should be carefully reconsidered before support for disabled students is affected in ways that could later prove difficult to reverse.
Petch also raised concerns about the University’s handling of communication around the proposals, saying “better and more prompt communication from the University itself would have been appreciated by the student body,” reflecting what Petch noted as a broader frustration among students about the way the changes were first made public, and about how little notice students were actually given.
If the redundancies are confirmed, disabled students may lose access to existing in-house Non-Medical Helper support, including Mentors and Study Skills Tutors, though the University has indicated that alternative external provision may remain available.
When it comes to potential strike action, a University of Sussex spokesperson said “the Universities and Colleges Union (UCU) informed us in August 2026 that they secured a mandate for industrial action amongst their members at Sussex because the University has not been able to rule out the possibility of compulsory redundancies until 31 July 2027”, but that they are “pleased to confirm that [they] have recently reached an agreement with UCU and there will be no strike action before 15 February 2027.”
Much remains unconfirmed, but the University of Sussex spokesperson noted that the University is focused on “ensuring students can access the support they need to succeed” and that it recognises “the important role that student support services play in the student experience.” They also noted that Disability Advice services will continue to be delivered by the University, and that “any changes to specialist support arrangements are being implemented with careful consideration of student impact and support needs.”
Another article you might like – https://thebadgeronline.com/2026/10/please-dont-take-my-tutor-away/
