[University entrance of dyslexic students in Greece]

Students with specific developmental learning disorders (dyslexia) may be examined orally in university entrance examination providing they have a certificate to that effect from a public child psychiatric or psychoeducational centre. The aim of this study was to investigate the success rate of dyslexic students in the university entrance examinations. Our hypothesis was, firstly, that these students will have the same success rate as other students and secondly, that they will mainly enter schools of science or technology. Our sample consisted of 420 dyslexic students who had sat for university entrance exams in 2006. Data was collected anonymously from Ministry of Education's files and consisted of the number of dyslexic students who were examined, their success rate, their choice of school and their grade. This data was derived from three examination centres in Athens and from five examination centres in an equal number of large provincial towns. Results showed that the success rate of dyslexic students in university entrance examinations was 39.76%, which was statistically lower than that of the general population of candidates which was 65.36%. Our hypothesis that these students would have a similar university entrance rate was not confirmed. Our second hypothesis concerning the preferred school of these candidates was confirmed since the majority of dyslexic students chose to study schools of sciences or technology. The dyslexic students' grades reveal a similar pattern to those of the general student population in the university entrance examinations, as long as these grades are greater than 9 on a score from 1-20. However dyslexic students entered technological colleges twice as often as the general student population. Our results are representative since our data was collected from 25% of university candidates throughout Greece. The anonymous nature of our data does not allow us to draw conclusions concerning socio-economic status, IQ levels or the quality and quantity of psycho-educational intervention, which would have led us to a more detailed analysis of the parameters leading to success or failure. Further investigation of the academic progress of dyslexic students would give us a more complete view of their educational achievements.