Feeling very excited about the new Frontrunner course for disabled students. I remember my time at Edinburgh University fondly - I had a great four years there but it was a real struggle academically - as it should be, but not to the extent I felt unable to participate like everyone else.

It took me two years before I could accept that I was never going to be able to hear well enough to keep up in lectures, regardless of where I sat in the room. The Disability Office were fantastic, they offered me a number of ways in which they could support me. Having said that, I still felt like it was a lonely battle - I didn't know anyone else there who was deaf like me.

It took me years to realise that I wanted to be a leader and a role model for people with disabilities.

This new Common Purpose course will go a long way to ensuring that disabled students don't feel disadvantaged at university, college or throughout their further education training, and that they won't be limited academically or socially. It will go a long way to developing a network of disabled students who can mutually support each other and who feel empowered and confident to succeed in every way of life.

I wish that this opportunity had been open to me during my time at Edinburgh. It would have made a huge difference in how I dealt with my struggles academically, and would have completely transformed my mentality that any problems I had with my disability were best kept silent.

The course will increase the numbers of those who make it through higher and further education, and raise the threshold academically. This will go a long way to increasing the employment opportunities for students when they graduate - as leaders and by the capabilities their degrees demonstrate.