University of Melbourne Neurodiversity Research Symposium

Concluding speech for the Symposium by Vice-Chancellor Duncan Maskell, Thursday 14 November 2024.

It is a pleasure to be with everyone for today’s ‘Celebrating Neurodiversity Research Symposium.’ The fact that so many people from our community have come together – in person and online – for this symposium is a remarkable sign of the interest in and great need for the work being done under the auspices of the University of Melbourne Neurodiversity Project.

The symposium of a single day has been a great way to bring together and highlight different threads within the research work undertaken at our university: research into the lived experiences of our community of neurodivergent people, into their challenges and needs, and into ways that we can make the university, and wider society, a healthier and more supportive place for everyone.

I also want to say, on a personal note, how delighted I am that the project has taken off. I remember seeing and hearing Jess Riordan speak powerfully at the Melbourne Leadership Conference in 2023, introducing some of her own experience and research conducted with colleagues here in the University’s Faculty of Education.

With the subsequent support of numerous people in education and across the University, a plan developed to widen the research to the whole university.

Last year, as I made clear when announcing the start of the Project, the goal behind it is to support our neurodivergent community at the University of Melbourne.

The need for that support is starkly shown in some of the research presented today.

In one of the keynotes, Jess Riordan presented some of the results of a university-wide student needs analysis.

This has revealed evidence of neurodivergent people’s experience of discrimination from staff and other students, and the negative impacts this has on students’ experiences at this University, such as their levels of loneliness and sense of belonging. This is not OK. It is clear that we still need much more education about what neurodiversity is in order to break down the discrimination that people are experiencing.

Sarah Timperley also shared results from the university-wide staff needs analysis, which showed that half of our neurodivergent staff members do not feel safe to disclose their neurodivergence to their managers and that the accommodation process for staff members is, sadly, extremely lacking.

It is clear that there is too much ‘struggling in silence’ being experienced by our neurodivergent staff and students. But at the same time, through this research project over the past 12 months, hope is now being experienced by many within the neurodivergent community, because for the first time they feel that they are being heard and noticed.

Another important aspect of today’s symposium has been giving a voice to neurodivergent researchers from different disciplines and faculties at the University, in areas including education, speech pathology, public health, film, computing and information systems, and accounting.

The work that has been done through this Project is an overdue change in direction for our university. Over the course of history, in different ways, universities have helped and hindered the cause of progress in relation to understanding neurodiversity. As I have pointed out before,over many centuries, universities and academia have been one of the areas where neurodivergent people often congregate.

On the other hand, universities have historically produced research that has focused on the deficits of people with neurological differences like Autism and ADHD, rather than on celebrating the many strengths of neurodivergent people, as we are doing now, in the excellent work that has been presented at today’s symposium.

That previous negative history is, I am sure, connected with the ongoing problems and challenges that many staff members and students today still experience, insofar as many do not feel safe to be openly identified as neurodivergent.

One step that we can take, both at the University and in wider society, is to continue speaking up and making more people aware of important and basic facts. One of those is the simple truth that around 15 to 20 per cent of the general public are neurodivergent. That underlines the important fact that individual differences in neurology are perfectly normal variations within a human population.

When we understand this, it becomes easier to celebrate the difference and diversity that we have among us all the time. The fact is that each one of us, whether we are neurodivergent or neurotypical, possesses and experiences our own unique strengths and challenges.

The work in this important University of Melbourne project also has an important social and global context. Worldwide today, there is a growing neurodiversity movement that is actively seeking to reduce stigma and ‘othering’ around conditions such as ‘autism’, ‘ADHD’, and dyslexia.

This movement is actively seeking to reduce the social barriers to success, so that everyone can thrive.

Thus we connect here with a significant trend of our times. There is a great need now to take the facts about neurodiversity out to the wider world, promoting public education and better understanding of the facts about neurodiversity and about the needs and the strengths of neurodivergent people.

As a university leader – although I am stepping aside from that role shortly – I am well aware of the responsibility that institutions like this university have to play a leading role in educating people about the facts.

This principle is one that I have long believed in – that those of us who have acquired expert knowledge in a subject area, such as infectious diseases in my own case – have a responsibility to share that knowledge where we can, to help society tackle the various challenges that it faces.

In a way, this is what a university does, through all its work. This symposium embodies that work in a particular way.

Helping people who are neurodivergent to flourish as human beings is one of society’s significant challenges today. So I am very proud of my colleagues who have worked so hard during the past 12 months, and for much longer than that, to open up the questions and provide the space for answers to emerge, and for people to connect, through this project.

Clearly, the University of Melbourne Neurodiversity Project has resonated with a large number of people across the community: across discipline boundaries, amongst academics, and very importantly, amongst students as well.

As I step away from my role as Vice-Chancellor in a few weeks’ time, I strongly encourage everyone here to continue the work that has been done so far.

I also strongly encourage everyone here to retain your self-belief as you pursue this work. Already, you are making a positive difference in the lives of the many neurodivergent students and staff members. After making contact with this project and with those driving it, many of those people now know that they are not alone, and there is a community of others here who care about their experiences.

That sense of community will be vital in the years ahead, both for the university and for each of us who are connected to the Project, as individuals who are making their way in the world.

Take heart and be strong. Neurodiversity is something to celebrate, not hide. I hope you will all carry this message far and wide. Thank you.