Fewer pupils from deprived backgrounds are going to university in Scotland despite a raft of initiatives to widen participation, according to a new report.
In 2006-07, just 14% of school-leavers from secondaries in the lowest participation areas for higher education went to university compared to 19% in 2002-03.
Over the same period, the proportion of pupils from the schools which enjoy the highest rates of progression to higher education has fallen only slightly, from 31% to 29%. The figures, published in a new report by the Scottish Funding Council (SFC), have prompted calls for more to be done to get talented pupils from deprived areas into higher education.
Nearly all universities run schemes to target gifted individuals from poor backgrounds, and some have even courted accusations of social engineering for allowing such students on to courses with fewer qualifications.
One of the aspirations of the government expansion of higher education in the mid-1980s, and then again in 1992, was to allow wider participation, but the main beneficiaries have been the middle classes. John McClelland, chairman of SFC, said participation in college and university education remains high - at over 50% of the school population - but said more should be done to address inequalities of opportunity.
He also called for more support to be given to students from non-traditional backgrounds to make sure they didn't drop out.
A Scottish Government spokesman said: "It is unacceptable that an educational gap between advantaged and disadvantaged people opens up early in a child's life and continues throughout."
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