Wider access for students from deprived areas

● Scottish universities pledge to reform admissions criteria

Universities across Scotland have vowed to widen access to people from the most deprived areas of the country at a faster rate.

Action to be taken includes contextualised admissions, making clearer the minimum entry requirements for all courses, making it easier for students to move from college direct to university courses and guaranteed offers for care toexperiencedapplicantswho meet minimum entry requirements.

The 15 recommendations of the Working to Widen Access report are to be enacted at Scotland’s 19 higher education institutions. Universities Scotland said it will make a “significant contribution” to a Scottish Government target of deprived backgrounds making up 20 per cent of the student population by 2030.

Professor Sally Mapstone,

0 Scotland’s 19 higher education institutions will work to make admissions fairer and faster for applicants principal and vice chancellor of the University of St Andrews, led the working group on university admissions.

She said: “Scotland is taking a big step forward with con- textualised admissions in a concerted bid to widen access at a faster rate.

“Universities will set minimum entry requirements for all courses: we will be very clear to whom this applies; and we will use consistent, user-friendly language to describe the process.

“We want to ensure that all potential applicants from disadvantaged and non-traditional backgrounds understand that they are welcome, supported and belong at the heart of our universities.

“We are confident that making these changes will help more prospective students, and their advisers, to realise that opportunities are there, within touching distance.

“The reforms to admissions, combined with the new action we intend to take with schools and colleges, will tackle the challenge of widening access from many angles. There is a lot to do but it is very encouraging to see momentum build behind this programme of work.”

Greater “clarity and consistency” is also to be used in the terms and language that universities use when it comes to widening access.

Professor Andrea Nolan, convener of Universities Scotland, said: “There is a will and a shared commitment amongst principals to push beyond what we have already been doing to widen access, to work with the latest evidence and respond with new ways of doing things.”

The Scottish Conservatives welcomed the commitment.

Shadow education secretary Liz Smith said: “The success of the widening access policy will largely depend on whether there is sufficient focus on raising attainment in schools.”