Universities in Scotland are celebrating after reaching a significant milestone in their commitment to widen access.
The latest figures show 16.4 per cent of students were from the most deprived backgrounds in the academic year 2019/20.
It comes after the Commission on Widening Access recommended that 16% of students should be from SIMD20 backgrounds by 2021, with an overall aim to reach 20% by 2030.
New HE stats reveal that Scotland’s widening access to university interim 2021 target of 16% of full-time first degree entrants from our 20% most deprived areas has been achieved at 16.4% - thank u to sector for its commitment to ensuring that university is for all backgrounds.
— Richard Lochhead (@RichardLochhead) January 27, 2021
Responding to today’s rise in number of enrolments and students from deprived areas, Universities Scotland Director Alastair Sim said: “Universities are interested in talent.
"Where you come from should not dictate whether you should go to university and today’s news shows that progress is being made in Scotland.
"This is a fantastic achievement that shows the commitment of our universities to widen access. We have reached the 2021 target a year ahead of time, but the hard work continues as we look to 2030 and beyond.
“This achievement has been possible because of a concerted and coordinated drive to catalyse the rate of progress and build on longstanding commitments to access from individual institutions."
He added: "Scotland’s universities have delivered a set of progressive policies including minimum entry requirements in admissions and guaranteed offers for care experienced students; moves that other countries are now looking to emulate.
"The job is not done, if anything the challenge to 2030 will get tougher. It will require continued ownership and leadership from universities but we are deeply committed to this.”
Richard Lochhead, minister for further and higher education, has also welcomed the progress.
He tweeted: New HE stats reveal that Scotland’s widening access to university interim 2021 target of 16% of full-time first degree entrants from our 20% most deprived areas has been achieved at 16.4% - thank you to [the] sector for its commitment to ensuring that university is for all backgrounds."
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 hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel