The prevalence of Specific Learning Difficulties in Higher Education: A study of UK Universities across 12 academic years

Specific learning difficulties (SpLDs) are often first identified in childhood but they can cause life-long difficulties affecting an individual’s ability to achieve academic and occupational success. We sought to explore the prevalence of SpLDs and the representation of sex and ethnicity amongst all first-year students in UK higher education (HE) across 12 academic years– almost 5.7 million students –and to compare course preferences and University destinations of those with and without SpLDs. Students declaring SpLDs were more likely to be White or of Mixed ethnicity and least likely to be Asian. They were more likely to attend specialist HE institutions or newer universities; they were more likely to study applied, practical courses in the creative arts and design, agriculture and architecture than language- and number-based courses such as law, languages, computer science and mathematical sciences. Numbers of students declaring SpLDs have increased year on year, both in actual terms and as a proportion of the student body, suggesting that efforts to increase diversity and inclusion have been successful. However, differences remain between SpLD and non-SpLD students in terms of ethnicity, subjects studied and HE institutions attended, indicating that more needs to be done to identify and address reasons for these differences. This is the first study to have explored these issues in an entire population over such an extended period. While this paper reports data only from students in UK higher education, it addresses an international question and invites similar explorations of other national datasets.