We went on to talk about encouraging graduate start-ups ( all of the new jobs are in London and the North east is in saw need of new industry). I mentioned one of my favorite facts - that while dyslexics make up 1% of senior management and 4%-15% of the population they represent 15%-20%(UK-US) of entrepreneurs. I reasoned that if one was honestly dedicated to encouraging graduate start-ups then one would have to begin with the right raw materials and so logically find ways to attract and encourage dyslexic students.
It left me struck with how a smaller local and recent Universities would compete in the UK market place. I had an idea that if I was running a department or a university that one approach I could take was going the way of a couple of universities/colleges in the US and becoming highly dyslexic friendly. e.g like Beacon ( http://www.beaconcollege.edu ) and Landmark ( http://www.landmark.edu ) and Living ( http://experiencecle.com ). We have a number of private dyslexic schools in the UK so why not a university or two ?
Currently many universities have programs to support dyslexic students. But this is largely about bending the student to fit the course. Imagine a university which bent the course and its self around the student, producing dyslexic friendly; learning materials, learning practices, entry requirements and assessment methods. I would argue that such a university regardless of status could rightly charge at the high fee rate and not put students off.
Currently dyslexics make up 4%-15% of the UK population but about 1-2% of the undergraduate student population so it strikes me that it would be a market that is underdeveloped and so with a large growth potential. The facts are that once a dyslexic student gets into university they are more likely than normal of doing well ( dyslexic undergraduates do better than average in their final degrees). Naturally you would have to have the same levels of accomplishment as a typical university but I believe you achieve this by not using a student's greatest weakness ( high pressured writing to a deadline i.e exams) as the key assessment technique.
And for example you might think that this would weaken your post graduate offerings and your potential to do world class research. Yet this might be a good line in self delusion, 'Negroponte commented that links between dyslexia and high talent are often observed at MIT-- indeed, these observations are so frequent that locally dyslexia is called "the MIT disease.' (http://scottishdyslexia.blogspot.co.uk/2006/06/mit-disease-nicholas-negroponte.html) ( NOTE MIT disease is so called 'because the overwhelming majority of their researchers/students are dyslexic'). So on the contrary I believe it would also be useful to boost postgraduate work and research.
You might argue that such a university would gain a reputation for producing dyslexic graduates and anyone coming from there would be immediately labeled as 'defective' to possible employers. Yes, there is a huge amount of discrimination out there but that doesn't stop largely black universities in the US being very successful. While we don't know the causes for the link between dyslexia and entrepreneurialism like we didn't know the link between smoking and lung cancer but still did something, if such a university did have a 'start-up' park/incubator I think such a place could be well placed to stimulate a local economy somewhere and produce dyslexic friendly employers.
Many dyslexic students also move towards STEM subjects so again if you were genuinely honest about boosting STEM subjects a highly dyslexic friendly university might be the way to go.
