The Representation and Attainment of Students with a Hearing Loss at the Open University

Abstract

An analysis of the representation and attainment of students with a hearing loss was carried out, based upon students who were registered on undergraduate courses at the Open University during 1996. Students with a hearing loss were older, were more likely to be female and had begun their studies with a lower level of prior education than students with no reported disability. They also differed in the number, workload, level and subject of the courses that they were taking, and they passed fewer courses and gained fewer credit points than students with no reported disability. There were, however, no differences between these two groups of students on any measure of academic outcome when differences in demographic features or academic level were taken into account. Students with a hearing loss who reported some other disability were similar on both demographic and course-related variables to students with a hearing loss alone, but they tended to show poorer attainment on a variety of outcome measures.