Supporting students with special needs: One lecturer’s approach

When Kim Ebensgaard starts teaching a new class, he knows that at least one student will come up to him afterwards to tell him that they have special needs. This could be due to physical challenges such as impaired vision, or mental health conditions like autism, ADHD or social anxiety.

Kim Ebensgaard is an associate professor of English at the Department of English, Germanic and Romance Studies, where he teaches grammar and linguistics. He has been employed at the University of Copenhagen (UCPH) since 2016, but has taught at university level for over 20 years. During that period, he has noticed a clear increase in the number of students who require special support in their studies.

»I get the sense that there are more students with diagnoses and special needs, and that in itself is a good thing. It means there’s less stigma around it, and that students feel they can speak openly about their needs,« he says.

Soaring demand for support

Kim Ebensgaard’s experiences reflect a broader societal trend. The number of university students receiving support through the Danish special educational support scheme SPS has risen dramatically. In 2020, 5,103 Danish university students received SPS support. By 2024, that number had grown to 10,109. The largest growth is among students with mental health conditions and dyslexia.

SPS is a government support scheme available to students with documented special needs to ensure they can follow teaching on an equal footing with others. Support can consist of things like mentors, supporting staff and technical aids — but it has also been criticised for being difficult to apply for and hard to manage.

In a major inclusion survey published by UCPH this summer, several staff members pointed out that they neither have the time nor the expertise to support students with special needs.

One staff member wrote:

»I lack the training and an overview of how much time I can/should spend on students with special needs.«

A student stated in the survey:

»It took a year to get approved for SPS support and a subject tutor (!). By the time I got it, I was mentally exhausted and academically burnt out.«

The National Audit Office of Denmark recently criticized two Danish government ministries for their management of the SPS scheme. According to the report, 51 per cent of students who start university do not receive the support they need in time.

READ ALSO: The University of Copenhagen’s inclusion survey: This is what surprised us

Demanding teaching task

Kim Ebensgaard says he always tries to accommodate students’ different needs in his teaching. But that requires knowing what these needs are:

»I can make ad hoc adjustments in the classroom that aren’t too demanding. But that depends on me knowing that there is a need. And as the number of students with special needs increases, we teachers also need formal training,« he says.

UCPH offers courses in inclusive teaching, which Kim Ebensgaard is well aware of. But he himself has not yet had the chance to attend a course yet.

»If you are teaching staff and want to attend a course, it takes extra hours — and you don’t always have them.«

So far, he has relied on his many years of experience. But it’s easier to adapt your teaching when you have a small class than when you’re standing in front of 150 students in an auditorium, he says:

»You have to constantly pay attention to who needs what. As a teacher, you need to be aware of the academic content and of the pedagogical tools you need to use to reach your students. You can’t just repeat the same teaching format every time — people learn in different ways. It takes an extra level of awareness.«

He has also taught classes with students who have differing and conflicting needs.

»Sometimes you just have to say: First we go through the material one way — and then another. That means you spend twice as much time on one type of content and have to cut back elsewhere. It doesn’t wreck the teaching, but it does mean that the old methods you’ve been using for years will probably need to be updated.«

Kim Ebensgaard encourages lecturers to reconsider what it really means to participate actively in class. For some students — especially those with social anxiety — speaking in front of others can be a huge hurdle. But they can still be active in other ways:

»If a student with social anxiety shows up, has read the material, does the in-class exercises and can ask me questions one-on-one — shouldn’t that count just as much as raising your hand in front of everyone? There has to be space for students with social anxiety to ask me questions privately.«

A welcome challenge

In many ways, Kim Ebensgaard welcomes the challenge. It forces him to rethink his teaching, and it also makes the material more interesting for him personally.

»But,« he adds, »it’s obvious that if you’re under pressure, it’s easiest to be able to use the same material over and over, in the same way. If a teacher is under pressure and doesn’t have the time to adapt the teaching, it can throw off the entire semester.«

There has to be space for students with social anxiety to ask me questions privately.

Kim Ebensgaard, Associate Professor of English

»With experience comes routine and tricks for saving time. As a brand-new teacher, you don’t have that routine or experience, and it takes more time to prepare teaching for a diverse classroom. I can imagine it could be overwhelming early in your career if you’re not an experienced lecturer.«

Some semesters, he has had students who only revealed their special needs late in the course. That makes it hard to accommodate them.

»Sometimes I wonder if I’m letting some students slip through the cracks. Classrooms have always been diverse — we’ve just become more aware of that diversity. But the increasing need means that lecturers have to be more conscious of it and spend more time on planning. That can be tough.«

He finds that many students need more structure than what the university typically offers.

»It’s important to them that the entire syllabus is published up front. That’s manageable with courses that run regularly, but with new courses, it can become a source of stress for the lecturer.«

Part of teaching training

Bente Stallknecht, who is dean and UCPH spokesperson for diversity, has previously told the University Post that the university is working to make inclusive teaching part of the academic teacher training programme. The goal is to better equip lecturers to meet students’ diverse needs.

Kim Ebensgaard supports this initiative — as long as it doesn’t interfere with academic freedom.

»One of the things that allows us to accommodate students’ different needs is the freedom in terms of how we teach. That’s what lets us be flexible and use ad hoc solutions that work.«

READ ALSO: Management: The University of Copenhagen still excludes international voices

This article was first written in Danish and published on 22 October 2025. It has been translated into English and post-edited by Mike Young.