MORE ring-fenced places for poorer students are required if ambitious targets on improving access to university are to be achieved, academics have warned.
A report by Strathclyde University also found the policy of making it mandatory for institutions to expand numbers of disadvantaged students was key to progress.
The Scottish Government has made it a priority to improve the country’s record on university access and introduced specific funded places for a three year period from 2013/14.
The move saw thousands of extra students recruited, but universities are now expected to pay for the places out of wider funding for teaching which is under increasing pressure from cuts.
Recent figures have shown just how far institutions have to go to meet ministerial targets for one fifth of students entering university by 2030 to be from Scotland’s 20 per cent most deprived communities.
Statistics from the Scottish Funding Council show the overall proportion at universities currently stands at just 10.4 per cent.
The report by a team of academics from Strathclyde University’s School of Education said: “Our analysis of trends in access in Scotland suggests there was a significant impact on progression rate for students to higher education... when additional protected places were provided for these applicants.
“Additional ring-fenced protected university places will be needed to achieve the long-term goals of equity of access.
“Furthermore, negotiating with or mandating higher education institutions to increase access to school leavers from disadvantaged backgrounds may contribute to the development of sustained access and improved representation of people from disadvantaged backgrounds at university.”
A spokeswoman for Universities Scotland, which represents principals, said the extra places had been welcome, but were not universal.
She said: “They were targeted at a few institutions where they helped ease the pressure of a strongly growing demand for places overall, but weren’t available to all institutions.
“Universities who received the places have now been asked to embed them within their existing funding and focus them solely on applicants from the 20 per cent most deprived postcodes.”
Vonnie Sandlan, president of student body NUS Scotland, said the report highlighted the importance of investment to ensure success.
She said: “It would be a huge loss to the thousands of young people who stand to benefit from those additional places if their original aims were forgotten.”
A Scottish Government spokesman said: “This is welcome confirmation of the positive impact of this investment in additional places.
“Funding decisions will, of course, be made as part of wider budget announcements.”
In 2014 First Minister Nicola Sturgeon said a child born in the country’s most deprived communities would have the same chance of going to university as a child born the most affluent.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here