Students with disabilities on an exchange

  • Are you unsure whether studying abroad is something for you?

  • Do you use special facilities at UU and want to know whether you would be eligible for these on an exchange?

Then this page is for you.


We at UU want to help you

During recent years we have increasingly received requests from students with disabilities who want to study abroad. These can vary from dyslexia to a chronic illness or physical limitation. If you have a disability, we encourage you to go on an exchange, and will be pleased to help you achieve this.

"It was a fantastic experience to go on an exchange to Ireland, and I’m so glad it was made possible thanks to the Erasmus grant, the additional grant and the support Utrecht University gave me"

Master student Roos with special needs went on an exchange to Ireland. Read about her experiences below.

“In 2017, I was on an exchange in Cork, Ireland, for around four months. Cork was ideal for me. It had the atmosphere of Utrecht: international, but not as many tourists as in Amsterdam. I had wanted to study abroad right from the start of my student years. For me though, it involved quite a bit of planning, because I needed an adapted flat. Eventually, I decided on Ireland, because for many years it had been somewhere I wanted to go to and I had also read that an additional grant was available to students with special needs. I contacted someone at the university who knew more about this, and together we discussed what would be needed. After providing all kinds of documents, I could get my finances sorted and could actually go and study in Ireland! I’m happy I put so much energy into making this happen, because it was just great to meet new people, to study and live abroad. I even studied Modern Irish (even though the locals in Ireland were quite surprised at that). I can still remember the evenings in a small Irish pub with fiddle music and cider. Or studying in the library and cooking with housemates of different nationalities (who knew that so many ingredients have such difficult names in English?). It was a fantastic experience and I am so glad it was made possible thanks to the Erasmus grant, the additional grant and the support Utrecht University gave me. Go raibh maith agat!”

- Rose Mary Hulscher, MSc student at the Faculty of Sciences