Ms Megan O'Connor:

A major thing with the formation of the new technological universities, which is fantastic, is that there is a huge number of satellite campuses. Something that students struggle with every year is the provision of accommodation. For students with disabilities, getting appropriate accommodation is even more difficult. We touched on it previously. The financial implications of studying with a disability are significant, and there is significant research to support that. First and foremost, we need to see those capital grants allocated to higher education institutions so they can build purpose-built student accommodation that is accessible for students, and so students do not have to travel far to access their education. That is a huge issue.

Also, we spoke a lot about the universal design for learning and ensuring that it is embedded in policies as the institutions are going through this new transitional phase. There is also engaging with stakeholders such as AHEAD and ourselves. We are more than happy to participate in those conversations. We also must include students on the ground. The students in each institution know that institution best and know what they need. We must continue to empower them to participate in those conversations. The availability of services across satellite campuses will be very important in the new TUs. There are some TUs with up to eight or nine campuses, which is significant. For senior management it is going to be a big job to ensure that there is equitable provision of services available for students.