Standing up for Scots students

Sir, – The attainment gap in schools between affluent and poorer areas is narrowing only at a snail’s pace. Meanwhile, university applicants from affluent areas who gain good (but not spectacular) grades (four A grades at Higher) are warned that they may well be rejected by Scotland’s ancient universities because of the cap on Scottish domiciled student numbers and the threat from the Scottish Government of fines for those universities that do not noticeably increase the number of applicants from poorer areas whom they accept.

The government’s insistence on providing “free” tuition for EU students, even after Brexit, and on providing “free” tuition for Scottish-domiciled students is the cause of the squeeze on places for the kind of student who would normally have expected an acceptance from a good university.

Fee-paying students

from the rest of the UK – and, of course, from countries outside the EU – who meet normal entry requirements are warmly welcomed and may even win a place through clearing, which is normally used by the less well-qualified.

Do Scots really want their young people to be discriminated against simply because of where they live?

I accept there is a need to create opportunities for bright pupils from poorer backgrounds, who appear to be being failed by their schools. But what kind of country will Scotland become if significant numbers of its young people are denied the opportunity for which they have been certified as qualified?

The long-term answer lies in improving schools in poorer areas so pupils there can achieve their highest potential. But, in the meantime, do we allow a strangulation of our university system that disadvantages some of our own Scottish students?

The time may be coming when the rocks have to melt with the sun. Jill Stephenson. Glenlockhart Valley, Edinburgh