The new Reasonable Academic Adjustments workflow on Portico

Overview 

The new process for managing Reasonable Academic Adjustments (formerly SoRAs) was launched on 22 September.  

From 22 September, new and continuing students who do not have existing reasonable adjustments should now use the new workflow to apply for Reasonable Academic Adjustments.  

To do this they should log in to Portico, click on the Student Disability Services tab and then click the Apply for Reasonable Academic Adjustments button. Information and guidance for students is provided on our student webpage Your Reasonable Academic Adjustments.    

Plans for the transfer of existing SoRAs* to the new Portico workflow 

(*These are the SoRAs that were in place before the new workflow went live on 22 September. This includes new students who had SoRAs put in place with SSWS over the summer.) 

We are preparing to transfer Reasonable Academic Adjustments for students with existing SoRAs to the new Reasonable Academic Adjustments on Portico workflow. We plan for this transfer to take place on 5 November: we will confirm the specific date in due course. On the day of the transfer, the Reasonable Academic Adjustments workflow on Portico will be unavailable to students and staff.  

Until the transfer takes place, departments should continue to use existing PDF records and share these with relevant parties to ensure that necessary adjustments are in place. The new Reasonable Academic Adjustments report will not show Reasonable Academic Adjustments for these students until the transfer has taken place. Please check both the SDS search and Reasonable Academic Adjustment report in the meantime. 

We will send communications to staff and impacted students when this transfer takes place. 

Information for staff  

Information and guidance is provided on our staff webpage Reasonable Academic Adjustments. This includes a student process demo video; “how to” Portico guides; groupwork guidance; Reasonable Academic Adjustments staff handbook; mapping of Reasonable Academic Adjustments by tier and a list of Reasonable Academic Adjustments on Portico Champions. 

Staff drop-in sessions 

We will be running the following drop-in sessions for staff to bring along their questions about the new process. If you would like to join, please use the links below at the specified time / date: 

Reasonable Academic Adjustments on Portico staff drop in: Thursday 30 October 2.30-3.30pm 

Reasonable Academic Adjustments on Portico staff drop in: Tuesday 11 November 3 - 4pm 

Notes to staff when communicating with students 

• Please use the term Reasonable Academic Adjustments in all visible staff and student communications from now on, unless specifically referring to an existing SoRA which has not yet been transferred to the new workflow on Portico. 

• Please do not refer to tiers when communicating with students: the tier categorisation is to help staff when processing / reporting on adjustments. For students, we should refer to our core set of Reasonable Academic Adjustments. If the student requires any changes to the core set of adjustments, they will meet with Student Support and Wellbeing Services to discuss their needs and agree an enhanced set of Reasonable Academic Adjustments as applicable. 

Contact details for further information: Currentstudent@ucl.ac.uk