I'm pretty sure they do need permission, because what of the four universities I didn't go to out of the five I applied for? None of them have the right to see my medical files unless I'm definitely going there and definitely applying for support. And they wouldn't even get to see my case notes; they'd only get a letter of confirmation of something along those lines from my psych or GP.
Sorry for de-railing the thread (but thanks for the interesting discussion
). Einmyria, have you decided what you're going to put down?