Four oldest unis STILL too elitist says equality tsar
Widening social mix ‘not a core mission’
SCOTLAND’S ancient universities have been shamed by the country’s equality tsar for failing to recruit a greater number of poorer students.
Sir Peter Scott said some institutions, including colleges and more modern universities, have made ‘good progress towards meeting their fair access targets or even exceeded them’.
But in a sign that the widening access drive is to be escalated, he said ‘in particular, some of the ancient universities, still have much further to go’.
Universities have pledged to lower entry criteria for disadvantaged students, but Sir Peter called for more concerted action – and denied it amounted to ‘dumbing down’.
He also recommended that brighter S6 pupils should go straight to the second year of university in a move that could undermine the traditional fouryear degree.
But there are concerns that middle-class pupils face being squeezed out to make way for pupils from poorer homes.
Urging the ancient universities – St Andrews, Edinburgh, Glasgow and Aberdeen – to do more to widen the social mix on campus, Sir Peter said older institutions may be resistant to the idea.
He said ‘Fair access is often more peripheral to their core missions, and meeting access targets may be (or perceived to be) in sharper conflict with achieving other, arguably more fundamental, goals.’
Scotland has the lowest percentage of state school pupils and college students going to university in the UK. Earlier this year, it emerged that top universities recruit fewer than one in 12 undergraduates from the most deprived areas.
Only 8 per cent of Scottish-based entrants at the universities of Aberdeen, Edinburgh, Glasgow and St Andrews in 2015-16 were from the 20 per cent most deprived areas.
In his annual report yesterday, Sir Peter, the Scottish Government’s Commissioner for Fair Access, said universities should be ‘bolder’ and ‘more radical’ in dropping the entry grades needed by young people from deprived areas. He said: ‘Making lower offers to applicants from deprived backgrounds is not “dumbing down” entry standards.’
Sir Peter, an Oxford-educated professor, was appointed by Nicola Sturgeon a year ago, and has been tasked with making it easier for poorer students to go to university.
The Scottish Government wants 20 per cent of new entrants to universities and colleges to come from the most deprived areas by 2030.
Figures for 2015-16 show 14 per cent of full-time degree entrants to university were from Scotland’s most deprived areas, an increase of only 0.1 per cent on the previous year.
Sir Peter makes 23 recommendations with the aim of speeding up progress, including a call for univer- sities to lower their entry requirements still further.
His report was welcomed by student leaders, with National Union of Students Scotland vice-president for education Jodie Waite suggesting that progress had been ‘too slow’.
She said: ‘The current rigid approach to entry requirements ignores the varying disadvantages faced by students from different backgrounds, forcing students to be judged on a level playing field despite the individual barriers they face.’
Scottish Labour education spokesman Iain Gray said: ‘The SNP came to power in 2007 promising to abolish student debt, instead it has doubled during the decade the SNP has been in office. They’ve slashed grants and bursaries, forcing students to turn to loans.’
John Kemp, interim chief executive of the Scottish Funding Council, said it was committed to being ‘more demanding in terms of widening access’. He added: ‘We will continue to monitor progress towards tougher targets for fair access.’
The Universities Scotland higher education umbrella body said institutions were committed to ‘levelling the playing field’ for students from disadvantaged areas.
A spokesman said: ‘If this can be achieved…without limiting opportunities for kids from middle-class families, many of whom will have had to work hard at school to get their grades, we would be supportive.’
St Andrew University said its views on widening access were represented by Universities Scotland.
An Edinburgh University spokesman said it was ‘fully committed to widening participation’.
Higher Education Minister Shirley-Anne Somerville said the Scottish Government would consider Sir Peter’s recommendations ‘carefully’. She added: ‘Every child, no matter their background, should have an equal chance of going on to higher education.’
‘Universities should be bolder’