Thirteenth International Conference on Health, Wellness & Society

Abstract

Internationally, there are few students with special needs who proceed to higher education. This is due to the challenges and barriers that they face in basic education. Even when they get to higher education, they become confronted with a number of challenges and barriers to higher education inclusion. There is a dearth of literature on addressing the context-based problems that students with special needs face in higher educational institutions. The aim of this study is therefore to investigate the challenges and prospects that students with special needs experience in South African higher education. In understanding the students’ experiences, the study focuses on students’ academic and life experiences and how they perceive their inclusion in higher education. This is a literature review study. The findings are presented using thematic analysis. This study contributes to the lack of literature by showing that values behind inclusive higher education and formal efforts towards inclusive higher education interact as push and pull factors that hinder the inclusive transformations in higher education. This paper further provides recommendations for practice and policymaking, as well as future directions for research to fill existing gaps and strengthen the body of knowledge on the inclusion of students with special needs in South African higher education.