Navigating University: The Design and Evaluation of a Holistic Support Programme for Autistic Students in Higher Education

This publication is included in the Autistic Autism Scholarship Project. one author of this publication is identified as autistic in the project.

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Brownlow, C., Martin, N., Thompson, D. M., Dowe, A., Abawi, D., Harrison, J., & March, S. (2023). Navigating University: The Design and Evaluation of a Holistic Support Programme for Autistic Students in Higher Education. Education Sciences, 13(5), 521. https://doi.org/10.3390/educsci13050521

Publication date: 20 May 2023 Added to AutiHub: 5 Oct 2026 Type: Article Article language: English
Publisher source (DOI) Full text OpenAlex source

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Authors

Publication authors
7
Publication authors identified as autistic
1 / 7 (14.3%)
  1. Charlotte Brownlow
  2. Neil Martin
  3. Donna-Marie Thompson
  4. Amelia Dowe
  1. Ding Abawi
  2. Jessica Harrison *
  3. Sonja March

Abstract

Successfully engaging with university study can be challenging for autistic students and has been highlighted in the research literature as an area of concern. This study sought to address support for autistic students at one Australian university through the development of a bespoke programme called A-Skills. The programme was co-designed with autistic students drawing on principles of self-determination theory and it aimed to develop study and student life skills. This paper presents a longitudinal evaluation of the programme using semi-structured interviews and user engagement metrics from the online platform. Our findings indicated that engagement with the programme varied between individuals but adopting a principle of co-design ensured that the topics of focus were important to the needs of the students it sought to support. Further, interview data suggested both positive sentiment and value towards the initiative amongst participants. Although online delivery enabled choice, there were potential challenges in fostering relatedness, which was addressed to some degree through synchronous online weekly sessions facilitated by an autistic student. Core to the success of A-Skills is the co-design approach as a central principle in the design, development and evaluation of the programme. With continued research and iterative design, the programme could be adopted more widely.

Bibliography cited by this reference

Cited references are imported from external metadata sources when they are available. The list may be partial.

Cited bibliography overview

These indicators describe the bibliography cited by this publication. An author name is counted each time it appears in one cited reference, so the same person can be counted more than once. Names not yet linked to an author already present in AutiHub are treated as unknown, not as non-autistic. Last computed: 17 Oct 2026 01:28.

Cited references
36
With a DOI
33
Without a DOI, from raw bibliography text
3
6 / 36 (16.7%) cited references include at least one author identified as autistic.
References with data to complete
3 / 36 (8.3%)
References with detected author names
33 / 36 (91.7%)
Without detected author names
3
Without a structured title
2
Without a stable identifier
2
References with raw author names still to review
3
References with external metadata lookup issues
0
These indicators apply to cited references displayed on this page, after technical duplicates have been merged. A reference without a DOI can still support author statistics when a title and author names are available.
Author names detected in the cited bibliography
107
From DOI or external metadata
107
From validated raw bibliography text
0
Raw names already validated
0
Raw names still to review
10
27 / 107 (25.2%) names are linked to an author already present in AutiHub. 80 / 107 (74.8%) names are not yet linked.
Names linked to a person identified as autistic
10 / 107 (9.3%)
Calculated across all author names detected in the cited bibliography. Among names linked to an author already present in AutiHub: 10 / 27 (37.0%). Distinct people identified as autistic: 9 / 90 (10.0%).
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