Hanson, Janet Susan (2025) The Lived Experiences of Final Year Neurodivergent Students Navigating the Transition from Higher Education to Employment: A Qualitative Exploration. Doctoral thesis, York St John University.

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Abstract

This research examines how neurodivergent students experience and navigate the transition from higher education to employment. It addresses a critical gap where existing literature examines university experiences and employment outcomes as disconnected domains, whilst rendering the transition period itself invisible. Despite substantial growth in neurodivergent student populations—from 11% to 20% of UK domestic students—and comprehensive academic support systems, only 36% of autistic graduates secure full-time employment within 15 months compared to 80% of neurotypical peers, revealing profound coordination failures between educational and employment contexts.

Employing a case study methodology grounded in interpretivist philosophy, this research centres on the voices of eight neurodivergent students through semi structured interviews and a longitudinal narrative account. As a neurodivergent researcher, I bring an insider-outsider positioning that deepens understanding whilst requiring rigorous reflexivity. Reflexive thematic analysis, guided by abductive reasoning, examines participants' lived experiences of navigating multiple environmental systems during their final year and transition to employment. This research addresses three interconnected questions: How do neurodivergent students experience and navigate complex environmental systems during workplace transitions? What information, support, and resources do students identify as necessary? How do different environmental systems coordinate or fail to coordinate during this critical period?

Analysis reveals three major themes: struggling through invisible systems demonstrates how students navigate opaque support structures whilst experiencing abrupt discontinuity at graduation—what participants termed the "transition cliff." Perpetual disruption exposes systematic failures when multiple support systems fail to coordinate, creating cascading barriers. The identity-navigation paradox illuminates tensions between neurodivergent authenticity and neurotypical workplace expectations, with masking leading to burnout whilst disclosure risks discrimination.

This research's major theoretical contribution, the Multi-Directional Ecological Framework (MDEF), emerged organically from iterative engagement between participant data and existing ecological theory during the analytical process. The MDEF extends Bronfenbrenner's bioecological theory and Navarro and Tudge's neo-ecological theory by demonstrating how neurodivergent students navigate simultaneous, multi directional pressures across environmental systems rather than linear sequential transitions.

Item Type:	Thesis (Doctoral)
Status:	Published
Subjects:	L Education > L Education (General)
School/Department:	School of Education, Language and Psychology
URI:	https://ray.yorksj.ac.uk/id/eprint/14858

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