Brexit could aid access to university, MSPs told

Brexit could reduce a “squeeze” on the number of Scottish students able to go to university, MSPs have heard.

Alastair Sim, director of Universities Scotland, told Holyrood’s education committee that leaving the EU could help “rebalance” admissions.

Lib Dem MSP Tavish Scott raised concerns the cap on funded places for Scottish and EU students – who both receive free tuition – was resulting in some applicants being “squeezed out”.

Mr Sim told the committee that while it was not a major problem currently, it was likely to become so in future as universities work to a target to have 20% of students come from Scotland’s most deprived areas by 2030.

He said: “What you’re broadly seeing is growth in people coming in from the most deprived quintile and relative stability in those coming in from the other quintiles. So that is not an unreasonable picture.

“As you look towards the future and achieving the targets we aspire to for 2030, as you increase your recruitment from the most deprived parts of the community, you also want to protect your ability to recruit from all the other parts.

“Over the period to 2030 we were saying to achieve that it’s reasonable to look for growth in the number of funded places.”

“That means more funded places which as we have said we have the opportunity as we look beyond Brexit.”