The way some Melbourne University students are taught has changed. Here’s why

University lecturer Dr Matt Harrison admits it is unusual for early career academics to write to the vice chancellor. But then, Harrison says knowingly, neurodivergent people tend to go outside hierarchies.

For Harrison and colleagues Dr Jess Riordan and Dr Sarah Timperley who, like him, are neurodivergent, going straight to the top worked.

University of Melbourne learning intervention researchers (from left) Matt Harrison, Sarah Timperley and Jess Riordan.Credit: Justin McManus

The learning intervention researchers from the University of Melbourne secured $470,000 from the university for a two-year project looking at the experiences of neurodiverse staff and students across the university’s nine faculties.

In its first year, the University of Melbourne Neurodiversity Project has already prompted cultural and academic changes for students and staff. More than 960 staff and students participated in the project.

Some lecturers in the faculty of medicine, dentistry and health sciences reviewed the academic material presented to students to ensure there were no negative or stereotyped references to neurodivergent conditions.

“This idea that autistic people are a burden or that autistic people need to be ‘fixed’ is still the messaging in some research,” Harrison said.

Academics in other faculties changed the way students do group work by letting them choose to work individually, in pairs or as part of a larger group.

To reduce distractions for some staff, meetings are no longer held in glass-walled rooms overlooking an office. Other meetings are held in rooms where the lighting and temperature can be adjusted and where there is space for participants to walk around.

“People are making these tweaks to how they do things, how they present, how they do meetings and how they set up workspaces,” Riordan said.

Up to 20 per cent of the population are estimated to be neurodivergent, an umbrella term that includes conditions such as autism, attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder, dyslexia and obsessive-compulsive disorder.

The researchers secured their funding on the back of a 2022 study which looked at the barriers faced by neurodivergent staff and students from the education faculty.

More than half of respondents had never disclosed their condition. A fear of being judged or stereotyped, as well as concerns their career opportunities would be negatively impacted, were the main reasons for non-disclosure.

“Because we’re all neurodivergent, we felt an ethical obligation to actually do something rather than just publish the research,” Harrison said.

Most strikingly, the 2022 findings showed that the university’s environment – including open-plan offices, glass-walled meeting rooms, a lack of quiet spaces and set temperature and light levels inside buildings – made it difficult for neurodivergent staff and students to work and study at their best.

“They were struggling in silence at great cost to their work,” Riordan said. “They had this fear that they wouldn’t be believed.”

Timperley said interest in the findings had been immediate. The trio has made more than 40 presentations on their research, including at the University of Michigan, Stanford University, the University of California, Berkeley, and the University of California, Santa Cruz.

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