Disabled Students' Allowance
If you have a disability, mental health issue or long-term illness, you can apply for Disabled Students’ Allowance (DSA) to cover the extra study costs relating to your disability.
For example, you can use it to help with:
- travel costs
- a non-medical helper to assist you with your academic needs
- specialist equipment like a computer
To apply for DSA, you need to be a UK student studying an undergraduate or postgraduate degree. If you’re studying part-time, you need to be studying the equivalent of 25% of a full-time course (for example, 30 credits a year on an undergraduate Bachelor’s degree course).
The amount you get is based on your needs, not your income. It doesn’t cover costs that aren’t related to your study.
DSA maximum allowances for 2025/2026
A single Disabled Students’ Allowance of up to £27,783 is available for eligible new and continuing full-time and part-time undergraduate and postgraduate students. This replaces the four DSA sub-allowances previously available. An exception for travel costs will be made to this maximum cap, which means that travel costs will, in effect, be uncapped.
How to apply for DSA
You can apply for DSA as part of your application when you apply for student finance through Student Finance England.
If you’re not applying for student finance, you can ask for a .
It can take up to 3 months to process your application and arrange for an assessment, so apply as soon as you can.
Further help and support if you have a disability
You can also get help and support from our Additional Support and Disability Advice Centre (ASDAC), which can offer advice and help with your DSA application.
The ASDAC team supports all students who have a condition which may impact their ability to access our campus, curriculum, teaching, learning, assessments and any other student-focused service.
The services and support ASDAC offers include:
- Confidential advice from disability professionals for all students, UK, EU and International
- Advice on funding to cover disability-related support costs
- Discussion and agreement on reasonable adjustments
- Liaison with other University services and facilities, eg, Library
- Sign posting for note-taking, mentoring and other academic support services
- Specialist interim study skills tuition
- Screening for Specific Learning Difficulties such as dyslexia
- Liaison with DSA needs assessors
To contact the ASDAC team, email asdac@port.ac.uk or call +44 (0)23 9284 3462.