Dyslexics lose NTNU support
Lack of funding leads to NTNU having to do cuts in their service for students who are functionally disabled.
Line Bryntesen Lund is in her final year of her Bachelor of Social Sciences in Education at NTNU. She has dyslexia, and has had a personal student assistant to help her with her studies since her first year of studying.
– This fall I was told that the service most likely was going to be shut down, and that I would have to manage without it, she tells us.
The service is means-tested, and one has to apply every semester.
– From fall 2009, I will only be offered a course in study strategies, which is not sufficient, she says.
– We wish to keep the service going, but we need more funding after using a lot more than last year’s budget allowed us to, says counselor Reidar Angell Hansen in the Counsel for Students with Disabilities (RFSF).
RFS are responsible for offering personal student assistants to with functional disabilities.
According to Angell Hansen the demand for student assistants is rising, but the lack of funding leads to cuts.
– Personal student assistants is the arrangement that needs most of the finances, and most administration. Our other services are suffering from it, he says.
The cuts in the service primarily affect dyslexics. They are not supported by NAV (the Norwegian Labor and Welfare Service), unlike many other students with functional disabilities.
– We know that dyslexic students must work harder than other students to get the same results. One option is that the students get fewer courses or hours with their student assistants, or that fewer students get the same service. The question is who needs our help the most, says Angell Hansen.
Director of studies at NTNU, Anne Rossvoll, says that they have not readied this year’s budget yet, and do not wish to comment on the priorities that are being made in it.
– It is wrong to draw conclusions about something that has not been decided yet, she says.
Rossvoll says that the budget will be readied in a couple of days, and that she will not be able to comment on the funding until then.
– Until one knows for sure, one cannot draw conclusions that one is lacking money, says the director of studies.
Line Bryntesen Lund used to study at the University of Agder (UiA), and knows about other universities’ arrangements.
– I did not have to fight for the adjustments I needed until I came to NTNU, she says.
She fears for her education without a personal student assistant.
– I am planning to start on my master’s degree this fall, and if I am going to make it, I will have to have an assistant. Without that help, I will not be able to finish, she says.
- May be illegal
Uncertainties around a new law might make the lack of a service for dyslexic students illegal.
Juridical counselor at the Equality and Anti-Discrimination Ombud, Åsulv Solstad, does not rule out that the service cuts might be illegal according to the new discrimination and availability act, which was set to life on January 1 this year.
– The question itself is to be answered by using this act, but since the act is still new, it is hard to know exactly how far it goes when it comes to rights, he says.
Still he thinks it is wrong to remove a service like this.
– By doing so, one takes away these students right to a higher education. It becomes a question of definitions when it comes to what rights the students have, and what NTNU is obliged to do for them, he says.
Solstad says that the new law makes it possible for the students to complain to the Equality and Anti-Discrimination Ombud.
– As long as they think they are not getting the help they are entitled to, he finishes.
– Must keep the service
Project leader at the Norwegian Dyslexia Association, Espen Schønfeldt, thinks that it is important to keep the services so that the students have the opportunity to graduate.
– In general, everyone has the same rights to take an education. The percentage of dyslexic students that do not fulfill their degrees is quite large, and they are depending on an adjusted education service, he thinks.
Schønfeldt thinks that not prioritizing this kind of service will cost even more later on.
– 50 percent of people on welfare today have different variations of dyslexia. If the help they need is being shut down now, it will cost more later on. Therefore, it will be profitable to find solutions now, and at the same time make sure that students with dyslexia get an education, he says.
He does not understand why NTNU is not investing more money to adjust the education.
– One can only wonder if the university primarily wants to save money rather than educate people, says Schønfeldt.
Translated by Maria Kråkmo
