Between 2008 and 2023, the share of students at UK universities who reported having a disability doubled from 8 to 16 per cent. At the elite institutions of Oxford and Cambridge, far from bucking the trend, the increase was even steeper, with rates quadrupling from 5 per cent to around 20 per cent.
This trend is not unique to Britain, as disability services and resources in education come under increasing strain from rapidly expanding criteria. In the US, research by Rose Horowitch for the Atlantic magazine found that 38 per cent of undergraduates at Stanford this year are registered as having a disability, as are 21 per cent at Harvard — both up from 5 per cent in 2009. My analysis of data from 19 European countries finds similar trends, with health impairments among students doubling on average over the past decade.