Scots students ‘losing out to English’
● Home-based youngsters’ chance of ‘clearing’ places half of those down south
Scottish youngsters are losing out on “clearing” places at universities north of the Border at the expense of students from England and around the globe, it has emerged.
Home-based Scots will have roughly half the chance to access university “leftover” spots, raising fresh concerns over the “cap” imposed by the Scottish Government to protect the system of free tuition.
Scottish youngsters don’t have to pay fees, which can reach £9,000 a year for students elsewhere in the UK, if they study at home universities. However, places are capped to ensure the system is affordable.
It has raised concerns in recent years that “straight A” Scots students are losing out on university in Scotland.
Analysis by the Scottish Conservatives has revealed in the latest clearing statistics there were only 1,059 courses at Scottish universities available to Scottish students. Their English counterparts could access 2,101 courses at Scottish universities and non-eu students could access 2,372.
Clearing places are available to youngsters who do not achieve the grades to get into their first-choice course and are forced to look elsewhere.
Recent Ucas statistics showed the number of Scottish students at Scottish universities had declined by 4 per cent in the past year.
Tory education secretary Liz Smith said: “An increasing number of Scottish students lose out because of the discrimination which is inherent within the SNP’S higher education policy and that includes the clearing process for which the inbuilt attraction for universities is those students who pay fees. The university sector is facing very difficult financial circumstances thanks to SNP budget cuts, the net result of which is the growing pressures within institutions to take more students from feepaying backgrounds.
“These most recent clearing statistics are further proof of the unfairness and the discrimination which affects Scots-domiciled students.”
The Scottish Government said: “Around 95 per cent of Scots successfully placed at Scottish universities through Ucas are accepted through the main scheme, before the clearing process has begun, so there are understandably fewer courses.”