LAST April, Angela Constance, the then Education Secretary, spoke of the importance of getting Scots children from the poorest backgrounds into universities. The Scottish Government, she said, had accepted a target set by the Commission on Widening Access (CoWA) that, by 2030, students from the 20 per cent most deprived areas made up 20 per cent of people in higher education.
Now 2030 is a while off but that can be said, too, of the likelihood of the target being met at the current rate of progress. New figures show 10.4 per cent of full-time entrants to universities in 2015-16 were from the 20 most deprived areas. The figure for 2014-15 was 10.8 per cent.
Universities Scotland says the decline is a blip and the number of applicants from deprived areas has since grown. In addition, the statistics only cover applicants aged under 21, thus excluding a slightly older but still important demographic, and take no account of students undertaking higher education courses at colleges, which is seen as a key way of widening access. Nevertheless, there are still significant issues to address. These include raising aspirations amongst families with no tradition of going to university and ensuring schools harness the academic potential of talented pupils who may lack the confidence to put themselves forward for university.
However, the figures underline the need for the CoWA recommendations to be put into effect as soon as possible. Universities Scotland is already working on fresh approaches to widening access, including the establishment of reduced entry grades for all courses, including high-demand degrees such as medicine, to ensure disadvantaged pupils are not denied a place because their background has prevented them from achieving the same grades as more affluent peers.
The latest figures show just how important these radical measures are to improving future admissions statistics.
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