Supporting neurodivergent students in their university and careers guidance: the importance of finding the right fit
As young people near the end of their time at school, planning for the future can feel challenging, with many questions along the way. In today’s world of constantly-changing career paths, economic pressures, and complicated geopolitical situations, choosing a university course is often daunting. For neurodivergent students, finding the right university course can involve additional considerations. Ensuring that their choices support their specific educational needs and learning preferences can have a significant impact on their course satisfaction, academic success, and ultimately, their future careers.
Mejianer Alcaraz Bekaert is an educational consultant and career counselor based in Belgium. Her expertise includes providing specialized support for neurodivergent students who are making the transition to university, applying a personalized approach to each individual’s needs. In this article she discusses the THRIVE framework that she has developed to help school leavers understand their own unique preferences when deciding their next steps, highlighting the importance of finding the right fit in higher education.
Where can they stay, and grow? A six-dimension framework for best-fit university selection
Jane is one of my students. Bright, curious, a deep thinker. She also has ADHD, dyslexia, and dyscalculia. When something gripped her, she could go remarkably deep. When it didn’t, starting was almost impossible. Her parents weren’t worried about whether she was clever enough. They were worried about independence, workload, and what happens when no one is checking in.
So we asked a different question. Not “where can Jane get in?” but “where can Jane stay, and grow?”
Neurodivergent students are more likely to drop out of higher education than their neurotypical peers (McDowall & Kiseleva, 2024). Butcher and Lane (2025), in their study of neurodivergent students’ experiences, point to why: systemic barriers in the learning environment itself. But they also find the reverse. With the right fit, accommodations, affirming staff, accessible curricula, and peer connection, higher education “can be highly rewarding.” Fit matters more than fixing. Alignment matters more than support added afterwards.
To help counselors evaluate university fit alongside families and students, I developed a six-dimension framework I call THRIVE. It is the protocol I run each shortlisted university through.
T. Teaching & Assessment Format. How is the work taught and assessed, and what range of formats does the course use to play to varied cognitive strengths?
H. Hidden Curriculum Load. What course and subject requirements go beyond what the brochure describes? Unstructured time, group work, presentation frequency, embedded modules (a hidden mathematics requirement inside a humanities degree, for example).
R. Reachable Support. What does support look like on a regular school day? Specialist staff, consistent across the years, not just first-year onboarding.
I. Independence Scaffolding. How is independence built across and within every year the student will go through? Structure without rigidity is what we are looking for.
V. Values & Culture Fit. How does the campus culture embrace neurodiversity in everyday practice? Culture is felt, not advertised.
E. Entry & Access Match. Can the student get in, and follow the course, on their genuine strengths?
What I have found most useful is treating these six dimensions as a weighting exercise, not a checklist. For one student, Independence Scaffolding may be the dominant concern. For another, Hidden Curriculum Load is the decisive factor. The dimensions tell us what to look at. The weighting tells us how much each one counts for this student. That conversation about what to weigh and why is often when the family discovers what they actually need.
Jane is now in her second year. She still has ADHD, dyslexia, and dyscalculia. None of it disappeared. But the environment matches how she is wired. She isn’t surviving. She’s thriving.
References:
Butcher, L., & Lane, S. (2025). Neurodivergent (Autism and ADHD) student experiences of access and inclusion in higher education: an ecological systems theory perspective. Higher Education, 90, 243–263
McDowall, A., & Kiseleva, M. (2024). A rapid review of supports for neurodivergent students in higher education. Implications for research and practice. Neurodiversity, 2
Beyond best-fit universities: helping neurodivergent students build sustainable careers
Cliona McMenamin is a careers and university guidance professional with over 20 years in education. Currently leading the careers programme at Dubai College, she combines deep knowledge of career development theory with practical leadership experience across both the UK and international settings.
Cliona elaborates on the topic of adapting career paths to suit neurodivergent people, giving her perspective informed by a strengths-based approach to building strategies with which students can plan their futures.
Mejianer Bekaert’s THRIVE framework offers counselors a practical way to evaluate best-fit universities for neurodivergent students. Once we have identified an environment where a young person can thrive, however, another equally important question remains: how do we help them build a future that is not only successful but sustainable?
For too long, career success has been presented as a fairly linear formula: achieve high grades, attend the most prestigious university possible and secure a respected profession. While this pathway suits many students, it does not suit everyone and can come at a significant cost for some neurodivergent young people.
Increasingly, careers professionals are recognising that success cannot be measured solely by prestige, salary or status. Effective career development also requires students to develop the self-awareness, agency and confidence needed to make informed decisions about their futures (Career Development Institute, 2021).
Sustainable success begins with understanding ourselves, recognising our strengths and identifying the environments in which we are most likely to flourish. This aligns with Self-Determination Theory, which identifies autonomy, competence and belonging as fundamental psychological needs that underpin motivation and wellbeing (Deci & Ryan, 2000). When these needs are met, students are more likely to engage, persist and thrive.
This represents an important shift in careers education. Rather than asking, “Which career should this student pursue?” we should first ask, “How does this student work at their best?”
Some neurodivergent students thrive in environments that offer pace, variety and autonomy. Others value routine, predictability and opportunities for deep focus. Many experience a combination of both. These preferences cannot be predicted by diagnosis alone. Strengths-based approaches to neurodiversity emphasise understanding the individual rather than making assumptions based on a diagnostic label (Doyle, 2020).
Effective careers guidance should therefore never become an exercise in matching diagnoses to occupations.
Instead, it should help young people understand:
- what gives them energy;
- what drains them;
- the environments in which they perform at their best;
- the support that enables them to succeed; and
- the kind of future they want to build.
When students develop this level of self-awareness, university choices become clearer, career decisions become more intentional and transitions become more successful.
Schools have a crucial leadership role to play in creating these conversations. Career guidance should not sit on the margins of school life or be viewed simply as preparation for university applications. Instead, it should contribute to a broader culture of equity, inclusion and student agency (Hooley, Sultana, & Thomsen, 2018).
This requires schools to move beyond celebrating only traditional measures of success. Choosing a pathway that genuinely fits a student’s strengths is not lowering their aspirations. Equally, deciding against a highly competitive route because it would come at too great a cost to wellbeing is not a lack of ambition. Often, these decisions demonstrate maturity, resilience and self-awareness.
As careers professionals, we have the privilege of helping students define success for themselves rather than allowing external expectations to define it for them.
The goal of careers education is not to encourage neurodivergent young people to fit into systems that were never designed with them in mind. It is to help them recognise the environments where they can learn, contribute and belong.
Ultimately, the best career pathway is rarely the one that looks most impressive on paper. It is the one that allows a young person to flourish, contribute and build a future that is both successful and sustainable.
References:
Career Development Institute. (2021). CDI framework for careers, employability and enterprise education. Career Development Institute. https://www.thecdi.net/Framework
Deci, E. L., & Ryan, R. M. (2000). The “what” and “why” of goal pursuits: Human needs and the self-determination of behaviour. Psychological Inquiry, 11(4), 227–268.
Doyle, N. (2020). Neurodiversity at Work: Drive Innovation, Performance and Productivity with a Neurodiverse Workforce. Kogan Page.
Hooley, T., Sultana, R. G., & Thomsen, R. (Eds.)(2018). Career Guidance for Social Justice: Contesting Neoliberalism. Routledge.
