The Scottish government has hit its target that by 2021-22 16 per cent of Scottish students entering university for the first time would be from the most deprived areas of the country.
In 2021-22, 16.5 per cent of Scottish students embarking on their first degree were from the 20 per cent most deprived areas, new figures published today show.
However, the goal that by 2021 students from the most deprived backgrounds should represent at least 10 per cent of full-time first-degree entrants in every individual Scottish university has not been hit.
A Scottish Funding Council (SFC) report shows that three universities did not meet this interim target: Scotland’s Rural College (5.1 per cent), the Robert Gordon University in Aberdeen (6.2 per cent) and the University of Aberdeen (7.9 per cent).
Meanwhile, the universities with the highest proportion of Scottish students entering university for the first time from deprived areas were the University of the West of Scotland (30.7 per cent), the Glasgow School of Art (23.9 per cent) and Glasgow Caledonian University (22.1 per cent).
Colleges have been credited with playing a key role in widening access to university and in 2021-22, today’s report shows, 45.6 per cent of Scottish full-time first-degree students from the 20 per cent most deprived areas progressed from a college course. That is up on the 2020-21 figure of 40.4 per cent.
In a statement the SFC also said the figures on the number of care-experienced students beginning undergraduate higher education courses in 2021-22 - in total 1,720, and 35 more than in the preceding year - represented “a watershed in efforts to secure equality and respect in higher education for care-experienced people”.
The SFC said that the proportion of undergraduate higher education entrants that were care-experienced - 2 per cent - was greater than the percentage of care-experienced children under 18 in the population (1.5 per cent).
More students from deprived areas going to university
The Scottish government has set itself the goal that by 2030 students from the 20 per cent most deprived backgrounds should represent 20 per cent of entrants to higher education. And also that equality of access should be seen in the college and university sectors.
As a step on the road towards that target, the government set itself the goal that by 2021 students from the 20 per cent most deprived backgrounds should represent at least 16 per cent of full-time first-degree entrants to Scottish universities as a whole.
Today’s figures show that, in 2021-22, 16.5 per cent of full-time first-degree entrants were from the most deprived areas.
Commenting on the figures, education secretary Jenny Gilruth said she was “delighted to see a record number of first-time students from the most deprived areas in Scotland securing a place at university” and that “even with a small decrease in the proportion, we continue to outperform the interim target of 16 per cent”.
In 2021-22, 5,595 Scottish students started full-time first-degree courses from the 20 per cent most deprived areas. That represents an additional 80 students compared with 2020-21.
However, while the overall number increased, the proportion from the most deprived areas fell slightly to 16.5 per cent, from 16.7 per cent in 2020-21.
Nevertheless, the government still hit its interim target.
Ms Gilruth said she would now “work with Scotland’s universities and the commissioner for fair access to drive forward further progress - ensuring that even more young people in Scotland have the opportunity to benefit from a university education”.
Today’s report also lookes at university retention rates. Overall, it says that 91.5 per cent of Scottish first-time university entrants returned to study in year two (2020-21 into 2021-22) - but that figure dropped to 88.6 per cent for those from the most deprived areas.
That is lower than the figure for the previous year of 90.2 per cent (in 2019-20) but above the pre-pandemic figure of 87.5 per cent in 2018-19.
