At least two students are understood to be suing Oxford University, claiming that it discriminated against their mental health needs.
Catherine Dance and Sophie Spector, both 24, said that their colleges improperly handled their special needs for exams and coursework.
Rights lawyers said there had been a rise in the number of cases brought by students against their universities, because of a better understanding of their rights and higher course fees.
Ms Dance, who was diagnosed with chronic anxiety and depression eight years ago, is suing for a year’s loss of earnings and psychological harm after Jesus College refused to allow her to sit mock exams in a private room using a laptop computer. Ms Dance was unable to sit the tests and graduated a year late, she claimed. She told The Daily Telegraph that “it meant I was one year out of a graduate job, plus the emotional damage and psychological harm”.
Jesus College denied the allegations.
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Ms Spector, who has dyslexia, ADHD and OCD, said that she felt pressurised to take medical leave from her politics, philosophy and economics course at Balliol College. She was refused an extended deadline on essays.
Chris Fry, a disability rights lawyer, said: “This is a generation of students who grew up with enforceable rights.” He said that the Equalities Act 2010 meant that there had been an increase in cases.