The representation and attainment of students with a hearing loss at the Open University

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