Tsar to aid poorer students
NICOLA Sturgeon will today announce new measures to ensure a greater number of poorer students in Scotland can go to university.
She will unveil plans for a Commissioner for Fair Access and the prospect of introducing conditions on higher education funding to “impose” wider student access in the future.
The Scottish Government has come under fire from its political opponents for the slow rate of progress in narrowing the university access gap between those students from richer backgrounds and those from poorer ones. Although access for poorer students has improved in recent years, figures for 2013/14 nonetheless showed just 1,335 school-leavers from the poorest 20 per cent of households went to university in Scotland compared to 5,520 from the richest 20 per cent.
Last year, it emerged that only 9.7 per cent of Scots were accepted to university from disadvantaged areas compared to 17 per cent in England, 13.9 per cent in
Northern Ireland and 15.5 per cent in Wales.
Indeed, at universities such as St Andrews, Aberdeen and Edinburgh less than than five per cent of their intake are from the poorest areas.
In 2014, the First Minister established the Commission on Widening Access and in March it produced its final report, setting out 34 recommendations aimed at getting students from more deprived backgrounds into higher education.
Among its more eye-catching recommendations was that, from 2019, students from poorer backgrounds should be accepted into universities with lower grades than middle-class students.
One t arget set and accepted by the SNP government was that, by 2030, students from the poorest 20 per cent of postcodes made up 20 per cent of all university entrants in Scotland, ie a doubling of the current number within 15 years.
Another commission proposal was for a Commissioner for Fair Access, which the Scottish Government has today also accepted.
The commissioner’s role would be to “lead cohesive and system-wide efforts to drive fair access in Scotland”, including commissioning research and producing an annual report to ministers.
A senior Holyrood source explained: “To keep the pressure up on the universities, the commissioner will report annually and be able to recommend to the Scottish Government that, if progress isn’t being made, we could impose wider access on individual universities via the funding system.”
Speaking before a National Union of Students hustings, Ms Sturgeon said: “The Commission on Widening Access has set out challenging targets that an SNP government will act on. I want to see universities, colleges and the entire education system embrace these recommendations and take steps to improve access to university.”